Reporter Evan Gershkovich hugs his mother, Ella Milman, as President Joe Biden, right, looks on at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, after they were released in a 24-person prisoner swap between Russia and the United States on Thursday.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
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Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The Wall Street Journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan landed in the United States late Thursday, after taking part in a historic prisoner exchange with Russia.
Whelan stepped off the plane first at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, followed by Gershkovich and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who works for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe. The trio shook hands and hugged President Biden and Vice President Harris, and hugged their families as onlookers cheered.
They were in the middle more than a dozen prisoners released by Russia in exchange for Russian prisoners held by the United States and countries across Europe, U.S. officials said Thursday.
In total, 16 political prisoners, journalists and others, including five Germans, were exchanged for eight Russians held in the United States, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland. Among the Russians was Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian state assassin held in Germany, as well as three other Russians held in the United States.
The prisoner swap is one of the largest between the United States, its allies and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
“Not since the Cold War have so many individuals been exchanged in this way,” said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, adding that the exchange was “the culmination of many rounds of complex negotiations that took months.”
Biden earlier said the deal was a “diplomatic achievement” and thanked allies for working with the United States on the deal.
“This is a prime example of why it is so important to have friends you can trust and rely on in this world,” he said in a statement.
Sullivan said Biden will seek to build on that success to try to free Marc Fogel, a U.S. citizen still held in Russia, and other Americans held in Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Gershkovich was arrested in Moscow in March 2023, becoming the first American journalist since the Cold War to be charged with espionage. Last month, a Russian court sentenced him to 16 years in prison after Russian prosecutors accused him of working with the CIA to gather information about a Russian arms company. Gershkovich, his employers and the US government have vehemently denied the charges, and the US considers Gershkovich to be wrongfully imprisoned.
Whelan, a Marine Corps veteran with US, British, Irish and Canadian citizenship, was arrested in Russia in December 2018 on espionage charges that he has vehemently denied. A Moscow court sentenced him to 16 years in prison in June 2020.
Whelan’s case began to receive widespread attention as part of an unsuccessful U.S. bid to bring him home, along with WNBA player Brittney Griner, who served 293 days in a Russian prison for having cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner returned to the United States in December 2022, but continues to fight for Whelan’s release.
“We are incredibly happy and relieved that four U.S. citizens returned safely to the United States today,” Griner and her wife, Cherelle, said in a statement. “The Biden-Harris administration has once again demonstrated true leadership by doing everything it can to bring Americans home. Every American home is a victory.”
This is a developing story.
NPR’s Rob Schmitz, Nick Spicer and Michele Keleman contributed to this report.
