In a historic prisoner exchange conducted between the United States and Russia late Wednesday night, Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal, former Marine Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist from Radio Free Europe, were released from Russia.
“This is an incredible relief,” President Joe Biden said of the exchange, flanked by family members of Kurmasheva and the others. Biden led the room in singing “Happy Birthday” to Kurmasheva’s daughter, who will have her mom home for her 13th birthday tomorrow.
“The deal that made this possible was a feat of diplomacy and friendship,” Biden said.
The exchange took place in Turkey, with the cooperation of several partnering countries. It included prisoners from Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and the United States. Eight prisoners coming from those countries were exchanged to Russia, marking the largest and most complex prisoner exchange since the Cold War.
“I particularly owe a great sense of gratitude to the chancellor,” Biden said of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “The demands they were making of me required me to get some significant concessions from Germany, which they originally concluded they could not do because of the person in question.”
The good news about freeing journalists and political prisoners from Russia was indeed tempered by who the U.S. and other countries returned.“There is a cost to the United States and our allies,” former U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan told CBS. He pointed out a high-ranking Russian intelligence officer convicted of murder, Vadim Krasikov, who was being released from Berlin. According to initial reports, eight different Russian citizens are being returned to their government.
Krasikov is portrayed as a hero by Russian media for killing Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a former Chechen separatist commander who fought against Russian forces in the early 2000s. Khangoshvili was accused of torturing and killing Russian soldiers during the war in Chechnya. Krasikov murdered Khangoshvili in a park in Berlin, shooting him in the head.
The swap only came to light on Tuesday as the National Security Council, the State Department and other government agencies refused to comment on the situation. After months of openly discussing a desire to work out the release of Gershkovich and others, the sudden lack of information spoke louder than expected.
Not even Sen. Ben Cardin, chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, let on that the historic exchange was taking place Wednesday afternoon. Cardin even opened a meeting with reporters by highlighting that he was pressing “for Alsu [Kurmasheva] to be designated ‘wrongfully detained.’”
“You are participating in the most dangerous profession in the world being journalists today,” Cardin said to a room full of reporters. “It’s always a mixed blessing. Because the detainees in Russia shouldn’t be detainees, and the prisoners that we’re going to swap are people that have committed murder.”
As Biden said Thursday, “Deals like this one come with tough calls.”
A total of 24 people were involved in the swap, according to Biden. Thirteen were released to Germany, including political prisoners Lilia Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeeva, as well as two other former members of Alexei Navalny’s political staff.
Biden also celebrated the return of Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post’s Opinions section. He was arrested for speaking against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (He continued writing from confinement.)
Russia accused both Gershkovich and Whelan of espionage, and the country went after Kurmasheva for “failure to declare herself as a foreign agent.” Both The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny that Gershkovich was doing anything other than journalism. The U.S. government has said Gershkovich’s recent trial was unjust and that the charges “never should have been brought in the first place.” Now, after Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a high-security penal colony, he’ll be heading home.
The U.S. government also dismissed claims that Whelan, a former Marine and security professional, was acting on their behalf. Whelan has been in a Russian prison for more than 2,000 days. On a website operated by Whelan’s family, hope seemed to be fading.
“False promises. False hopes,” a post reads from June. “The reality is that the US does not appear to have made more than one offer to secure Paul’s release since … late 2023.”
That family is now hearing good news as Whelan is confirmed as part of the swap, and according to Biden, they had a chance to speak with him on the phone from the Oval Office.
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.