Russia and the West agreed to a massive prisoner exchange carried out Thursday that involved six countries, two dozen prisoners, and extensive negotiations from all parties involved.
Four Americans were released from Russia, as were 12 German nationals and Russian political prisoners, while the United States, Germany, Slovenia, and Norway agreed to give up eight Russians. The difference in the cases is Russia imprisons journalists and civilians to use as bargaining chips in these types of negotiations, whereas the Western countries are parting with Russians who often had been convicted in courts of law.
Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovich, and Vladimir Kara-Murza are the Americans who were released in the prison swap.
Whelan was arrested in late 2018 during a trip to Russia for a wedding. He was accused of espionage, which he and the U.S. denied, and was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison. The former Marine spent more than 2,000 days in Russian detention before his release.
“Paul Whelan is not in a Russian labor colony any longer, but he is not home. While Paul was
wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, he lost his home. He lost his job. We are unsure how someone
overcomes these losses and rejoins society after being a hostage. We are grateful for everyone’s
efforts to help Paul while he was away,” the Whelan family said in a statement.
Kurmasheva is a Russian-American citizen who resides in Prague and works for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. She was in Russia last year to visit her sick mother when she was detained on claims she spread “false information” about Russia’s military. Kurmasheva was sentenced to six and a half years in prison last month.
“Today, my daughters and I are witnessing a historic act of resolve and compassion by the U.S. government and its allies, demonstrating that the free world values human life and family above all else, even when it means exchanging real criminals and spies to save wrongfully detained Americans,” her husband, Pavel Butorin, said.
Gershkovich was a Russian-based journalist for the Wall Street Journal when he was arrested last spring on espionage charges, like Whelan. He was the first journalist to be arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War and was sentenced to 16 years in prison last month.
“We are overwhelmed with relief and elated for Evan and his family, as well as for the others who were released,” Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour and Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker said in a statement. “At the same time, we condemn in the strongest terms Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia, which orchestrated Evan’s 491-day wrongful imprisonment based on sham accusations and a fake trial as part of an all-out assault on the free press and truth. Unfortunately, many journalists remain unjustly imprisoned in Russia and around the world.”
Kara-Murza is a Russian opposition leader who is also a permanent resident of the U.S. and a dual Russian-United Kingdom civilian. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason for publicly condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The five German citizens who were released in the deal are Rico Krieger, Kevin Lick, Demuri Voronin, Herman Moyzhes, and Patrick Schoebel.
Krieger was sentenced to death in Belarus in June after facing charges of terrorism and mercenary activities, though the news of his case only recently came to light. He worked for the German Red Cross. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko granted him a pardon earlier this week.
Lick was convicted of treason last December for allegedly taking photographs of and filming military equipment at the Maikop garrison in Russia. He was sentenced to four years in a penal colony last year, according to the New York Times. He was still a teenager in school at the time of his arrest.
Voronin was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison after being accused of helping Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who was sentenced to 22 years in prison after being accused of treason. The indictment alleged that Voronin facilitated Safronov’s cooperation with the Germans.
Moyzhes was arrested recently on allegations of treason for helping Russian civilians obtain residence permits elsewhere, according to Russian state media.
Schoebel was arrested in January for allegedly carrying a bag of cannabis gummies at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg, Russia.
At least seven Russian opposition leaders were released as part of the deal.
Yashin was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for spreading “false information” about the Russian military’s operations in Ukraine. Russia criminalized criticism of the war at the start of the operations.
Skochilenko is a Russian artist who was sentenced to seven years in prison last year. She replaced price tags with anti-war messages in a grocery store in St. Petersburg.
Orlov, who previously led the Russia-based human rights organization Memorial, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for speaking out against the war.
Chanysheva was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison after being convicted of “organizing an extremist community.” She previously worked with Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s organization. The Supreme Court of Bashkortostan upped her sentence by an extra two years in April.
Fadeeva, also a Navalny associate, was sentenced to nine years in prison last December after being convicted of organizing activities for an extremist group using her official position.
Ostanin, who also worked with Navalny, was sentenced to nine years in prison on extremism charges.
Pivovarov, an opposition activist, was sentenced to four years in a penal colony in July 2022, according to Amnesty International.
There are eight Russians who were released from various Western countries, including Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s primary prisoner he wanted freed, Vadim Krasikov.
Krasikov, a former high-ranking FSB colonel, was convicted of murdering a former Chechen fighter in Berlin in 2019 and was later sentenced to life in prison. His inclusion in a deal was critical to secure Russia’s willingness to do this proposal.
A German government spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said they “did not take this decision lightly.”
“The state’s interest in executing the prison sentence of a convicted criminal was offset by the freedom, physical well-being and – in some cases – ultimately the lives of innocent people imprisoned in Russia and those wrongfully imprisoned for political reasons,” Hebestreit added. “Our obligation to protect German citizens and solidarity with the United States were important motivators.”
Konoshchenok is a Russian citizen with alleged ties to Russian intelligence who was facing charges in the U.S. for his role in a global procurement and money laundering network on behalf of the Kremlin. He was detained in Russia on Oct. 27, 2022, and was extradited to the U.S. on July 13, 2023. He faced a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Klyushin was sentenced in the U.S. last year to nine years in prison for his role in what officials described as “an elaborate hack-to-trade scheme” that netted nearly $100 million based on confidential corporate information stolen from U.S. computer networks. He was arrested in Switzerland in 2021 and was extradited to the U.S. later that year.
Seleznev was arrested in the Maldives in 2014. He was then extradited to the U.S. where he was sentenced in April 2017 to 14 years in prison for his role in a $50 million cyberfraud ring, according to the Department of Justice.
The Dultsevs, Russian spies, were arrested in Slovenia in late 2022. They posed as Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, an Argentinian couple. The Ljubljana regional court sentenced the pair to more than a year and a half in prison, equivalent to time served, and ordered their expulsion from Slovenia.
Mikushin, a Russian spy, was arrested in Norway in 2022 as he pretended to be a Brazilian researcher. In 2023, he confessed his real Russian name.
Rubtsov was a Russian spy living in Poland under the false pretense of being a Spanish journalist. He was arrested in February 2022.