Biden Admin Frees 3 Americans From Russia in Multi-Nation Prisoner Swap

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:27 pm

The Biden administration secured the release of three Americans and a U.S. green card holder detained in Russia, in a multi-nation prisoner exchange on Aug. 1.

Among the freed Americans were U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. The green card holder freed in the exchange was Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dual national who had routinely criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government, and who has contributed a column for the Washington Post.

Happening Now: President Biden and Vice President Harris greet Americans freed from Russia at Joint Base Andrews. https://t.co/Z1gP6RUAIW

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 2, 2024

Russian authorities detained Whelan in December 2018 on suspicions of spying; a charge he denied. A Russian court found him guilty during a closed-door trial and sentenced him in June 2020 to 16 years in prison.

Russian authorities likewise detained Gershkovich in March 2023 on spying charges, specifically suspecting him of collecting sensitive information on a Russian tank production and repair facility. Gershkovich’s last article for the Wall Street Journal, published the day before his arrest, did touch on aspects of the Russian economy and its efforts to boost wartime production as it continues to fight in Ukraine.

Like Whelan, Gershkovich denied the spying allegations. Still, he was convicted and sentenced in July to a 16-year prison sentence after a closed-door trial.

Kurmasheva, a Russian-American national, visited Russia in May 2023 to attend to a family emergency. It was as she tried to leave the country in June 2023 that Russian authorities stopped her and seized her passports. She remained in Russia, awaiting the return of her passports when Russian authorities finally charged her with working as an unregistered foreign agent and collecting information that could harm Russian national security. RFE/RL receives funding from the U.S. government through grants managed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

Russian authorities later charged Kurmasheva with spreading false information about the Russian military. A court found her guilty and sentenced her last month to a six-and-a-half-year prison term. She too insisted on her innocence, as did her employer. The Biden administration called for her release, but unlike with Whelan and Gershkovich, hadn’t declared her to be wrongfully detained before her release.

Kara-Murza had been critical of Putin’s government and the Russian invasion of Ukraine from its start. Russian authorities detained him in April 2022 and later charged him with working to discredit the Russian military. A Russian court convicted and sentenced him in April 2023 to 25 years in prison. Kara-Murza continued to contribute columns for the Washington Post throughout his time in Russian custody and this year won a Pulitzer Prize—one of the most notable distinctions in journalism and commentary—for those prison cell writings.

“Today, we celebrate the return of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir and rejoice with their families,” President Joe Biden said Thursday. “We remember all those still wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world. And reaffirm our pledge to their families: We see you. We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring your loved ones home where they belong.”

Russian and Belarusian authorities also released five German nationals and seven more dissident Russian nationals from their custody as part of the exchange.

In return for the Russian and Belarusian prisoners, the United States, Germany, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia released eight Russians:

• Artem and Anna Dultsev, a couple who pleaded guilty to spying charges in Slovenia.
• Mikhail Mikushin, whom Norwegian authorities arrested and tried on spying charges.
• Pavel Rubtsov, a Russian-Spanish journalist whom Polish authorities detained in February 2022 near the Polish-Ukrainian border on suspicions of spying.
• Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian businessman, was arrested in Sweden and extradited to the United States in 2021. A U.S. court convicted him on securities and wire fraud charges and sentenced him to nine years in prison. U.S. authorities also alleged Klyushin played a role in interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections, but he was not convicted on any specific charge relating to those allegations.
• Roman Seleznev, another Russian whom a U.S. court found guilty of hacking in 2017 and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
• Vadim Konoshchenok, a Russian citizen living in Estonia was arrested and extradited to the United States in 2023. U.S. authorities charged Konoshchenok with laundering money in a scheme to procure ammunition for Russia’s military, but he wasn’t convicted prior to his release.
• Vadim Krasikov was detained in Germany and convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for murdering Zelimkhan Khangoshvili earlier that same year. Khangoshvili, a Georgian national, had claimed asylum in Germany after fighting alongside Chechen rebels against Russian forces during the Second Chechen War.

“It is difficult to send back a convicted criminal to secure the release of an innocent American,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Thursday. “And yet, sometimes the choice is between doing that and consigning that person, basically, to live out their days in prison in a hostile foreign country or in the hands of a — a hostile power.”

Sullivan said negotiators worked on the prisoner exchange for months and eventually realized they had to release Krasikov to seal the deal.

Several Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the nature of the exchange. Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) said the deal was “not equal” and faulted the Biden administration for swapping Americans whom he deemed “wrongfully detained” in Russia for legitimately convicted “war criminals.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) said the deal would send a “dangerous message” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and incentivize Russian authorities to take more Americans “hostage” to trade for “actual Russian criminals.”

Republicans similarly criticized the Biden administration for trading Russian national Viktor Bout to secure the release of women’s basketball player Brittney Griner in December 2022.

A U.S. jury convicted Bout in 2011 on charges of conspiracy to kill Americans and to provide material support for terrorism, for selling weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) in Columbia between 2007 and 2008. The U.S. government had considered FARC a terrorist group since the 1990s and considered the group responsible for killing multiple Americans in their decades-long insurgency with the Colombian government. The Biden administration reversed the designation in November 2021 following a peace plan with the Colombian government.

Russian authorities arrested Griner in February 2022 for having cannabis hash oil in her luggage. During her trial in Russia, Griner said she made an “honest mistake” bringing the hash oil in her luggage. She was traveling to Russia to play for a Russian basketball team during the WNBA off-season.