British national included in large prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries, including high-profile individuals | Global News
High-profile individuals held captive in Russia, such as British citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza and US journalist Evan Gershkovich, have been released in a large-scale prisoner swap. This exchange, the biggest since the Cold War, has resulted in the freedom of several individuals.
Among those released are Mr. Kara-Murza, a dual UK-Russian citizen, Wall Street Journal reporter Mr. Gershkovich, and former US marine Paul Whelan. A group of approximately two dozen people from multiple countries, including Russia, the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Belarus, have been part of the exchange.
The prisoner release includes Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of a Georgian citizen in Berlin.
President Joe Biden is set to meet the families of the released Americans at the White House on Thursday.
Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov is being freed as part of the exchange. Pic: Reuters
The intricate negotiations for this trade were conducted in secret with Russia and other countries over more than a year. The exchange represents a significant achievement for all parties involved and will be touted by the Biden administration as a notable foreign policy success in an election year.
Those released from Russian custody include: Mr. Kara-Murza, Mr. Gershkovich, Mr. Whelan, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, Dieter Voronin, Kevin Lick, Rico Krieger, Patrick Schoebel, Herman Moyzhes, Ilya Yashin, Liliya Chanysheva, Kseniya Fadeyeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrey Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov, and Sasha Skochilenko.
Those released from Western prisons are: Krasikov, Artem Viktorovich Dultsev, Anna Valerevna Dultseva, Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin, Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov, Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin, and Vadim Konoshchenock.
Russia and the West have a long history of prisoner swaps
The exchange on Thursday has been billed as the biggest since the Cold War – a time when tit-for-tat trading of captured spies, agents, and innocent citizens, caught on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, was commonplace.
A well-known location for spy swaps was the Glienicke bridge between West Berlin and Potsdam in what was East Germany.
It was the site of a 1962 exchange – depicted in the move Bridge of Spies – between KGB colonel Rudolf Abel and Gary Powers, the pilot of an American spy plane that was shot down over the Soviet Union.
The collapse of the Soviet Union did not mean an end in the trade of captured spies and other citizens.
The last significant swap in the post-Cold War era was in 2010 on the tarmac of the international airport in Vienna, when 10 Russian spies, including Anna Chapman – detained by the United States – were exchanged for four people released by Russia, including Russian double-agent Sergei Skripal, an MI6 operative.
Eight years later, Mr. Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent in the cathedral city of Salisbury in a botched assassination attempt carried out by Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Ankara, the Turkish capital, was chosen as the location for the latest swap.
The biggest known spy swap between the eastern bloc and western powers took place in 1985 after a three-year period of talks. It involved 25 people imprisoned in East Germany who were exchanged for four East Europeans held by the allies.
Mr. Kara-Murza, an opposition politician in Russia, received a 25-year prison sentence on charges related to public remarks critical of the Kremlin. His arrest in April 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, marked an escalation in authorities’ suppression of dissent reminiscent of Soviet times.
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Evan Gershkovich. File pic: Reuters
‘Joyous day’ for release of reporter
In a letter, Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker said it was a “joyous day” after the release of her reporter, Mr Gershkovich. She added: “That it was done in a trade for Russian operatives guilty of serious crimes was predictable as the only solution given President Putin’s cynicism.” Mr Gershkovich was arrested and detained in March 2023 after Russia claimed he had been “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA. Mr Gershkovich, 32, said the charges against him were false and his employer called the case a sham.
Germany: Decision to release Krasikov not easy
Confirming the release of convicted killer Vadim Krasikov, the German government said it had not been an easy decision. He had been serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a Georgian citizen who had fought Russian troops in Chechnya and later claimed asylum in Germany. German judges said he acted on the orders of Russian authorities, who gave him a false identity, passport, and the resources to carry out the killing. The killing and subsequent sentencing triggered a major diplomatic row between Russia and Germany, including tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.
