The Kremlin and the West have agreed on a major prisoner exchange, including the release of several Americans. Among them is the journalist from Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich has been detained in Russia since 2023, American media reported on Thursday, August 1. Turkey claims to have coordinated an exchange of twenty-six prisoners in Ankara.
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The deal, which appears to be one of the largest since the Cold War, also includes the release of former Marine Paul Whelan, according to CNN, while ABC reports that other Western countries are involved in the swap. Turkey has coordinated in Ankara an exchange of twenty-six prisoners between Russia and several Western countries, the Turkish presidency announced on Thursday.
The Turkish presidency said in a statement that the exchange involved the exchange of ” people from prisons in seven different countries (United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus)”, specifying that seven planes participated in the transport of the prisoners. Ten prisoners, including two minors, were transferred to Russia, thirteen to Germany and three to the United States. “, the same source said.
This prisoner exchange would be the first between Moscow and the West since the release in December 2022 of American basketball player Brittney Griner, detained in Russia for a narcotics case, in exchange for that of the famous Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, imprisoned in the United States.
US President Joe Biden hailed a ” diplomatic feat “.« Some of these women and men were unjustly detained for years. All endured unimaginable suffering. Their agony is now over. “, the Democratic leader wrote in a statement.
Early in the afternoon, speculation was rife. Russian sources claimed that in exchange, two Russian spies arrested and sentenced to prison in Slovenia were released. The couple Artem and Anna Dultsev are said to have returned to Russia via Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast, before reaching Murmansk in the north of the country. An exchange that could herald others.
There is talk in Russia of the release and departure for Western countries of more than a dozen political prisoners, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for discrediting the Russian army. This is information that the Kremlin refused to comment on this morning, but which could materialize in the coming hours, according to Jean-Didier Revoin, our correspondent in MoscowA Russian national imprisoned in Germany for murder, Vadim Krasikov, has been handed over to Russia, according to the Turkish presidency.
US pressure for Evan Gershkovich’s release
The United States has been pressuring Moscow to release the journalist from Wall Street JournalEvan Gershkovich, sentenced on July 19 in Russia to 16 years in prison following a summary trial for “espionage”, an accusation never substantiated.
Read alsoRussia: Justice charges American journalist Evan Gershkovich with spying for the CIA
It was on March 30, 2023 that the reporter was arrested while reporting on the war economy. Since then, Evan Gershkovich has been convicted of espionage. His only hope of release rested on a prisoner exchange.
THE Wall Street Journal welcomed the release of its journalist on Thursday. Evan is free and on his way home (…) We are deeply relieved and happy for Evan and his family, as well as the others who have been released “, said a newspaper official in a statement, speaking of a ” historic day “.
The NGO Reporters Without Borders said: immensely relieved ” of this liberation. ” We are immensely relieved to hear that Evan Gershkovich’s 16-month ordeal is finally coming to an end. We look forward to hearing news of his safe return to the United States. “, said Rebecca Vincent, RSF’s campaigns director in a statement sent to AFP, adding that the NGO remains ” Deeply concerned by the continued detention of more than 40 other journalists in Russia “, including Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
Espionage accusations
FSB investigators accused Evan Gershkovich of espionage. After his reports in the Urals, where arms factories are concentrated. Accusations of spying for the CIA, considered absurd by his employer, the Wall Street Journal.
The arrest of a foreign journalist, established since 2017 and with proper accreditation, shocked colleagues who discovered that no one is safe in Russia anymore. This first detention of a Western journalist for espionage since the end of the Cold War was very quickly exploited by the Kremlin.
Russian authorities quickly announced their intention to use the journalist as a bargaining chip with the United States. Speaking to American journalist Tucker Carlson last February, Vladimir Putin suggested exchanging him for Vadim Krasikov.
Since then, negotiations have continued in the shadows between Washington and Moscow. While he is being held in the sinister Lefortovo prison, the Wall Street Journal has continued to recall his case and demand his release.
Read alsoRussia: After the conviction of American journalist Evan Gershkovich, exchange as a last hope?