High-profile people held prisoner in Russia – including British citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza and US reporter Evan Gershkovich – have been freed as part of a massive prisoner swap.
In the biggest such exchange since the Cold War, a number of high-profile individuals have been freed.
They include Mr Kara-Murza, dual UK-Russian citizen, Wall Street Journal reporter Mr Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan.
Some two dozen people from countries including Russia, the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus have been moved.
Among those being released from Western prisons is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a Georgian citizen in Berlin.
President Joe Biden will meet the families of the released Americans at the White House on Thursday.
The complex trade was negotiated with Russia and several other countries in secret for more than a year and represents a major accomplishment for the parties and will be presented by the Biden administration as a marquee foreign policy success in an election year.
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Those being freed from Russian custody are: 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 being freed from Western prisons are: Krasikov, Artem Viktorovich Dultsev, Anna Valerevna Dultseva, Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin, Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov, Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin, Vadim Konoshchenock.
Mr Kara-Murza, an opposition politician in Russia, was jailed for 25 years on charges after making public remarks which were critical of the Kremlin.
His arrest in April 2022, weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, came as authorities ratcheted up their crackdown on dissent to levels unseen since Soviet times.
‘Joyous day’ for release of reporter
In a latter, 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.
