Evan Gershkovich among 24 prisoners exchanged in Russia-West deal

The biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War era took place earlier today, with 24 people released in total, the US has confirmed.

The White House said 16 prisoners have been freed and are on their way back to Europe and the US. Among them is Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

In return, eight Russians have been released from prisons in the US, Norway, Germany, Poland and Slovenia, including individuals accused of intelligence activities.

The swap took place on the runway at Ankara airport earlier on Thursday.

President Joe Biden has confirmed US Marine veteran Paul Whelan, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Russian-British activist Vladimir Kara-Murza are also on their way back to the US.

The deal has been more than 18 months in the making and appears to have hinged on Moscow’s demand for the return of Vadim Krasikov.

The suspected Russian agent, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 murder of a Kremlin opponent in a Berlin park, is now heading back to Russia.

A senior US administration official described him as a “bad dude” and said he was “certainly the biggest fish the Russians wanted back”.

The view in the White House is that this deal is the most complex exchange in US and Russian history.

Mr Biden called it a “feat of diplomacy”, adding: “Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years.

“All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”

German citizen Rico Krieger, who was sentenced to death in Belarus then pardoned by the country’s leader Alexander Lukashenko, and Russian political prisoner Ilya Yashin have also been released.

The exchange comes after days of speculation about a major swap between various countries, which increased after several dissidents and journalists jailed in Russia were moved from their prison cells to unknown locations.

Although secret prison transfers are common in Russia, the multiple disappearances of well-known prisoners was unusual.

Earlier, the Turkish presidency said prisoners from both sides of the deal were taken off aircraft at Ankara airport, moved to secure locations under the supervision of Turkish security officials and put on planes for their respective destination countries.

There has still been no official confirmation of the exchange from Moscow, although the details are being widely reported in Russia.

Earlier, the Turkish presidency said 26 individuals were involved in the exchange. That figure included two children, most likely those of Artyom Dultsev and Anna Dultseva – a Russian couple convicted of spying in Slovenia who are part of the exchange.

The last high-profile prisoner swap took place in December 2022, when US basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged on the tarmac at Abu Dhabi airport for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had been held in an American prison for 12 years.

The last comparable one occurred in Vienna in 2010, when 10 Russian spies held in the US were swapped for four alleged double agents held in Russia.

One of them was Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence officer, later poisoned by nerve agent Novichok in Salisbury in 2018.

Tensions between Moscow and the West have been high in recent years, especially since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.