Russia frees US reporter in one of the biggest prisoner swaps with West

Moscow: US journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan were released from Russia Thursday, the Turkish government announced, in one of the biggest East-West prisoner swaps since the Cold War.

A total of 26 people, including two minors, from the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Russia were involved in the swap “carried out” by Turkey’s MIT intelligence service, Turkey’s presidency said.

There was no immediate confirmation from US officials, although the swap was widely reported by US television networks. The Kremlin declined to comment on any exchange.

Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich, 32, was detained in Russia in March 2023 and convicted in July on spying charges in a fast-track trial denounced as a sham by the United States.

Among those being returned to Russia in exchange, the Turkish government said, is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen imprisoned in Germany for killing a former Chechen rebel commander in a brazen assassination.

Signs of an imminent prisoner swap had picked up momentum earlier Thursday, amid reports a plane used in a previous exchange deal had landed in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.