(The Hill) — The U.S., Western allies and Russia exchanged 24 prisoners Thursday in the largest exchange of detainees since the Cold War.
The swap that took place in Turkey freed three high-profile Americans who had been detained for months or even years.
In return for releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, Russia received eight prisoners who had been held abroad.
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Germany also received 12 prisoners who were held in Russia.
The prisoner swap involved not just the U.S., Turkey, Germany and Russia, but also, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus.
Here’s what we know about the Americans and Russians released in the swap.
Gershkovich
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, looks out from inside a defendants’ cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his extended pretrial detention, at the Moscow City Court in Moscow on Feb. 20, 2024. (Natalia Kolesnikova, AFP via Getty Images)
An American whose parents emigrated from Russia, Gershkovich was detained in March 2023 in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting assignment. He has worked for The Wall Street Journal since 2022.
Gershkovich was accused of collecting state secrets on the Russian military on behalf of the U.S. government and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in July.
The U.S., his employer and press freedom groups all said he was wrongfully detained and pushed for months for his release.
Whelan
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine accused of espionage and arrested in Russia in December 2018, stands inside a defendants’ cage as he waits to hear his verdict in Moscow on June 15, 2020. (Kirill Kudryavtsev, AFP via Getty Images)
The former Marine has been held in Russia since 2018 and was considered wrongfully detained by the U.S. government.
Whelan served in a Marine reserve unit and deployed to Iraq in 2004. After his retirement from the armed forces, he joined the security company Kelly Services.
Whelan traveled across the globe and was in Russia in 2018 for a friend’s wedding when he was detained and accused of espionage.
He was later sentenced to 16 years in prison and moved to a penal colony. Whelan was the subject of multiple negotiations over the years but grew frustrated after other prisoner swaps between the U.S. and Russia did not include him, including a deal that released WNBA star Brittney Griner in 2022.
Kurmasheva
Alsu Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who was arrested last year for failing to register as a “foreign agent,” attends a hearing on the extension of her pretrial detention, at the Sovetski court in Kazan on April 1, 2024. (Alexander Nemenov, AFP via Getty Images)
Kurmasheva is a journalist who held Russian and American citizenship but lived in Prague, Czech Republic, with her husband and two daughters.
She wrote about the Tatar and Bashkir minority groups in Russia’s Volga-Ural region.
Kurmasheva traveled to Russia in May 2023 to care for her ailing mother.
She was temporarily detained in June 2023 and then arrested in October of that year.
In July, she was sentenced to more than six years in prison for spreading false information.
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Russian-British national Vladimir Kara-Murza, who also has an American green card, has long been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He was detained in April 2022 after he began speaking out over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Kara-Murza is a contributing opinion writer for The Washington Post, where he writes about Russia and often criticizes Putin and the Kremlin’s policies.
Vadim Krasikov
Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman, had been held in Germany following his conviction in the death of a former Chechen separatist commander in Berlin in 2019.
Speculation has fueled for months that Putin wanted to secure his release in return for a prisoner swap, potentially involving Whelan or Gershkovich.
Krasikov was a high-ranking official in Russia’s Vympel special forces unit in the Federal Security Service.
Krasikov is also suspected of being behind a 2013 killing of a Russian businessman in Moscow in 2013, but the case was later dropped.
Other Russians released
According to multiple reports, here are the other Russians released.
Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva were being held in Slovenia on espionage charges. Both were linked to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. The pair pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Mikhail Mikushin was arrested in 2022 in Norway on espionage charges and accused of spying for Russia.
Pavel Rubtsov was detained in Poland in 2022 and accused of spying for Russia and serving as a military intelligence agent under the cover of being a journalist.
Roman Seleznev, a Russian hacker and credit card fraudster, was sentenced to 27 years in prison in the U.S. after his detention in 2014.
Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian businessman, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2023 in the U.S. in a hacking scheme.
Vadim Konoshchenok was detained in Estonia in 2022 and arraigned on charges in the U.S. in 2023 of smuggling American technology and equipment to Russia’s military and government.
Germans released
The prisoner swap Thursday also freed 12 Germans and Russian activists held by Russia.
According to multiple reports, they were:
Dieter Voronin, a Russian-German citizen and political scientist detained in 2021.
Kevin Lik, who was born in Germany but moved to Russia and was arrested in 2023 at the age of 16 on accusations of taking photographs of Russian troops.
Rico Krieger, a German man sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges. He was accused of planting explosives near a railway line to support Ukraine and confessed to the crimes in a choreographed video.
Patrick Schoebel, a German man accused of carrying cannabis gummies into Russia and detained in February.
Herman Moyzhes, a Russian-German lawyer accused of helping Russian citizens get European Union visas.
Ilya Yashin, a prominent ally of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. He was sentenced to more than eight years in prison in 2022 for spreading fake news.
Lilia Chanysheva, a Russian opposition figure and Navalny ally who was arrested in 2021.
Ksenia Fadeyeva, another Russian opposition figure and Navalny ally arrested in 2021.
Vadim Ostanin, an opposition figure and Navalny ally arrested in 2021.
Andrey Pivovarov, a human rights activist who founded the disbanded Open Russia movement and was sentenced to four years in prison in 2022 for leading an “undesirable organization.”
Oleg Orlov, a human rights defender sentenced to more than two years in prison in February.
Sasha Skochilenko, a Russian anti-war activist and artist who was arrested in April 2022.
Other Americans still in Russia
Marc Fogel, a schoolteacher from Pennsylvania, is still in Russian custody. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to 14 years in prison on drug smuggling charges.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black returned to Russia in early May to visit his girlfriend. He was sentenced to nearly four years in prison in June on charges of stealing money from his girlfriend and making threats toward her.
Former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman was sentenced to more than four years in prison for attacking a police officer while drunk in 2022.
U.S.-Russian national Ksenia Karelin, from Los Angeles, is on trial for charges of funding Ukraine’s military after her detention earlier this year.
David Barnes, of Texas, was detained in 2022 and sentenced this year to 21 years on allegations of abusing his children.
Robert Woodland, a U.S. citizen adopted from Russia, was detained in January and sentenced to 12 years in prison on drug charges.
Eugene Spector, born in Russia but later moved to the U.S., was sentenced to four years in prison on bribery charges in 2021.
