Russia on Thursday released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a massive prisoner swap with the United States since, The Associated Press reported.
Both of them were arrested under the charges of espionage, which has been denied by both the reporter and the former Marine and the US. Sources familiar with the matter told the news outlet that many Russian prisoners held by America will also be released as part of the deal.
The deal holds a potential to end several years of tense negotiations between the two nations over the prisoners, which each of them believed were wrongly held.
An online Ukranian newspaper, Ukrainska Pravda, reported that this might not be the only major prison swap between Russia and the Western countries. It said that an even bigger one might be in the pipeline, involving not just the US but also Germany, Slovenia and the United Kingdom.
The 32-year-old Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while he was on a reporting assignment in Urals' Yekaterinburg. The WSJ reporter was accused of being a spy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a claim that he and the news outlet have repeatedly denied.
Just last month, Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in prison after being "wrongfully convicted in a hurried, secret trial that the US government condemned as a sham", WSJ had reported.
US President Joe Biden had said that the reporter was being "targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American". He vowed to keep pressing for the release of Gershkovich and all the wrongfully detained Americans.
“Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength,” Biden said, adding that, “We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home.”
Meanwhile, former US Marine Paul Whelan was imprisoned on similar espionage charges in 2018, was found guilty and also sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan was reportedly in Russia to attend a friend's wedding and was detained after a loan payment to an old friend in the FSB led him to being framed by that very friend and ultimately resulted in his arrest.
Reportedly, swaps can happen only after one is convicted.
