(NewsNation) — Two Americans imprisoned on espionage convictions are on their way back to the U.S. as part of an agreed larger prisoner swap with Russia, President Joe Biden announced Thursday.
“Their brutal ordeal is over and they’re free,” Biden said at a news conference at the White House. “Moments ago, their families and I were able to speak to them on the telephone from the Oval Office. They’re out of Russia.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released into U.S. custody after spending 16 months and more than 5 1/2 years, respectively, behind bars in Russia.
The historic prisoner swap included 26 people and cooperation from seven countries: Russia, the U.S., Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“The return of Michigander Paul Whelan, along with Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and others, is tremendous news,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said.
While many are celebrating the return of Gershkovich and Whelan, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul expressed concern over the practice of swapping prisoners at all.
“Continuing to trade innocent Americans for actual Russian criminals held in the U.S. and elsewhere sends a dangerous message to Putin that only encourages further hostage-taking by his regime,” McCaul said in a statement Thursday.
Inside the prisoner swap with Russia
The trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The released prisoners were transported to Turkey on seven different planes early Thursday, Biden said. Biden confirmed eight people were relocated to Russia, 12 were relocated to Germany and four to the U.S.
Among those returning to Russia is Vadim Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Germany. Krasikov is a Russian hitman arrested and sentenced in 2021 for murdering a Georgian citizen in Berlin who’d fought against the Russian military, the report said.
Speculation about the swap began Tuesday when many of the prisoners were being moved from their holding cells and transferred.
Details of who the U.S. may be sending back to Russia, or who else may have been freed, are not yet known. A Turkish intelligence agency said it was coordinating the extensive prisoner swap Thursday at Ankara Esenboga Airport, Reuters reported.
Previously, the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War took place in 2010, involving 14 people in total.
Who was released from Russia?
Biden confirmed that 16 people being detained in Russia were being released, including five Germans and seven Russian civilians who were being held as political prisoners.
“Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,” Biden said.
Here’s a complete list of people released from Russia and where they are being relocated:
Germany
- Liliya Chanysheva
- Kseniya Fadeyeva
- Rico Krieger
- Kevin Lick
- Herman Moyzhes
- Oleg Orlov
- Vadim Ostanin
- Andrey Pivovarov
- Patrick Schoebel
- Sasha Skochilenko
- Dieter Voronin
- Ilya Yashin
United States
- Evan Gershkovich
- Vladimir Kara-Murza
- Alsu Kurmasheva
- Paul Whelan
Who is returning to Russia?
In exchange for the 16 people held in Russia, several countries have agreed to release prisoners back to Russia. In total, eight people were released back to Russia.
Here’s a list of people returning to Russia and from which country they were released:
From Germany
- Vadim Krasikov
From Norway
- Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin
From Poland
- Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov
From Slovenia
- Artem Viktorovich Dultsev
- Anna Valerevna Dultseva
From the United States
- Vladislav Klyushin
- Vadim Konoshchenock
- Roman Seleznev
Evan Gershkovich convicted in July
“Evan is free and on his way home,” the Wall Street Journal told NewsNation in a statement. “We are overwhelmed with relief and elated for Evan and his family, as well as for the others who were released.”
Gershkovich was convicted last month of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison on charges that his employer and the U.S. government have rejected as fabricated.
Gershkovich was in Russia on a reporting trip in March 2023 when he was arrested and accused of espionage.
Russia alleged Gershkovich was “gathering secret information” at the CIA’s behest about a facility that produces and repairs military equipment. It provided no evidence to support the accusations.
Gershkovich was the first American reporter to be detained in Russia on espionage charges since the Cold War.
Fight to bring Paul Whelan home
“Paul, after more than five years, we finally get to say, welcome home,” Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., posted to X on Thursday. “Justice has prevailed and today, an innocent man is free. God Bless America.”
Whelan, who was originally arrested over spying allegations, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.
The 54-year-old corporate security executive from Michigan was arrested in 2018 in Moscow where he was attending a friend’s wedding. He has maintained his innocence, saying the charges were fabricated.
Whelan’s family refused to let him be forgotten and were relentless in visiting and calling officials in Washington to get the former Marine home.
Upon learning of his release, the Whelan family released a statement that thanked all those involved in getting their loved one home.
“Paul Whelan is free,” the statement, which Whelan’s brother David started writing in 2022, began.
“Paul was held hostage for 2,043 days. His case was that of an American in peril, held by the
Russian Federation as part of their blighted initiative to use humans as pawns to extract
concessions. Our family is grateful that members of Congress from both sides of the aisle
expressed concern for Paul as an American, regardless of politics.”
Read the full Whelan family statement here:
His family became even more concerned for Whelan late last year after he was attacked in a prison workshop by other inmates. The attacking prisoner allegedly punched him in the face, breaking his glasses.
Whelan previously endured violence when he was in pretrial detention in Moscow at the hands of a guard who was later reprimanded for that. He has also endured verbal abuse at the labor camp that he was assigned to.
He was left out of a prisoner exchange in April 2022 that brought home yet another detainee, Marine veteran Trevor Reed. That swap escalated pressure on the Biden administration to avoid another one-for-one swap that didn’t include Whelan.
That pressure grew when basketball star Brittney Griner was detained for having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She was sentenced to nine years in prison but was eventually freed in December 2022 during another one-on-one prisoner exchange with Russia for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S.
When the swap didn’t include Whelan, it sparked outrage among his family and supporters.
Americans remaining in Russia
Among U.S. nationals remaining behind bars in Russia include former school teacher Marc Fogel, who was convicted in 2002 for possessing marijuana, which he said he used for medical reasons. He has been serving a 14-year sentence.
Fogel was not a part of the swap with Russia, his attorney confirmed to NewsNation. He said Fogel’s family was “in shock.”
Members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation have been calling on the Biden administration to include Fogel in any prisoner swap with Russia.
Arrests of Americans are increasingly common in Russia, especially since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
“Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan’s unjust imprisonment as hostages is yet another sobering reminder of how evil the Putin regime really is,” Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., wrote in response to the news of their release.
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The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.