Russia has released American journalist Evan Gershkovich in the biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history.
Also among those released was one of the most prominent opponents of the Putin regime, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dual British-Russian citizen and winner of the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
Americans Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive and former marine, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen; Russian dissidents including associates of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny; and Rico Krieger, a German convicted of alleged terrorism in Belarus, were also released.
Kara-Murza was an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine and the internal crackdown on dissent in Russia who was sentenced in 2023 to 25 years in prison for spreading “false” information about the Russian army and being affiliated with an “undesirable organisation”.
He also played a key role in persuading Western governments to sanction Russian officials for human rights abuses and corruption and his sentence was condemned by the UK government.
AEJ UK chairman William Horsley noted that he is a major figure among those leading the strategic attempts to bring Putinism down and his release could have real-world impact for the cause. “He is a heroic leader of political resistance and biting media revelations about Putin and his gang – in the mould of Alexei Navalny and Jamal Khashoggi.”
A total of 16 people were released by Russia while 8 people in several different western countries were sent back to Russia, the most prominent being Vadim Krasikov, convicted in Germany in 2021 of killing a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park two years earlier, apparently on the orders of Moscow’s security services.
The massive trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations but on July 22 two Russian courts suddenly convicted Gershkovich of espionage with a prison sentence of 16 years and Kurmasheva of spreading false information about the Russian army with a sentence of 6½ years in closed and unusually short trials. Whelan has been in Russian jail since 2018 and convicted in 2020 on espionage charges.
All three and the American government have denied the charges and accused Russia of holding them as hostages for a prisoner exchange.
Massive prisoner swap
Vladimir Kara-Murza thought his pre-release move was leading to execution
Columns by Vladimir Kara-Murza in The Washington Post
Vladimir Kara-Murza-Wikipedia
List of prisoners exchanged
Evan Gershkovich sentenced in Russia – July 22
Exchanged prisoners welcomed back to USA
Putin welcomes Russian prisoners home
How the deal came together-AP
How the deal was done-New York Times
How the deal was done-BBC
