Russia frees US reporter in major prisoner swap with West

ANKARA — US journalist Evan Gershkovich and a Russian intelligence colonel jailed for a Berlin killing were among 24 prisoners and two minors freed Thursday in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, officials said.

The 24 were brought to Ankara from Russia, the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus under the deal that Turkey said its MIT intelligence service had spent weeks putting together.

Ten Russians, including two minors, were exchanged for 16 westerners and Russians detained in Russia, said a statement released by the Turkish presidency.

US President Joe Biden called the deal "a feat of diplomacy".

"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 added in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal said it was "overwhelmed with relief" at the release of Gershkovich, 32, who was detained in Russia in March 2023 and jailed in July for 16 years on spying charges that were denounced by the United States.

Paul Whelan, a former US marine detained since 2018, also flew to Ankara. Another American, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian with US residency were also freed.

Opposition politician Ilya Yashin and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-Briton with US residency, who had both been jailed for criticising Russia's invasion of Ukraine, were among Kremlin opponents set free.

Yashin will go to Germany with 11 other German nationals and Russians, according to the US administration. They included Rico Krieger, a German who was sentenced to death in Belarus on espionage charges before being reprieved this week.

Among those returned to Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian intelligence agent imprisoned in Germany for killing a former Chechen rebel commander in a brazen assassination.

The German government acknowledged that agreeing to free Krasikov had not been an "easy decision".

"Our duty of care to German citizens as well as solidarity with the USA were important factors" in the decision to send Krasikov home, said government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit.

Amnesty International said in a statement the swap was a sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin "is clearly instrumentalising the law in order to use political prisoners as pawns". 

Hopes for a prisoner exchange had risen in recent days after a number of high-profile prisoners in Russia, including Whelan, went missing from facilities where they were serving terms, fueling speculation they were being moved for a swap.

This was the first exchange between Russia and the West since star US basketball player Brittney Griner returned home in return for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.

It was the biggest since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged. They included double agent Sergei Skripal, who was sent by Moscow to Britain and undercover Russian agent Anna Chapman, sent by Washington to Russia.

Before then, major swaps involving more than a dozen people had only taken place during the Cold War, with Soviet and Western powers carrying out exchanges in 1985 and 1986.

'Pushing hard' 

Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip. He, his employer and the US government all strongly denied the espionage allegations against him.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders said it was "hugely relieved" at the release.

"The Russian government's continued policy of state hostage-taking is outrageous. Journalists are not spies, and they must never be targeted for political purposes," the group said.

Washington had also been pressing for the release of Whelan, 54, who was arrested in 2018 in Moscow and charged with espionage.

Whelan was working in security for a US vehicle parts company when he was arrested, and has always asserted that the evidence against him was falsified.

Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old activist, was serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and other charges after criticising the Ukraine war. He suffers from a nerve disease and was moved to a prison hospital this month.

Adding to the intrigue was a case in Slovenia, where a court sentenced two Russians suspected of spying for Moscow to more than a year and a half in prison -- but then ordered their expulsion from the country. 

Arrests of US citizens in Russia have increased in recent years, in what Washington sees as a Kremlin attempt to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.