US-Russia prisoner swap: US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed four newly freed prisoners from Russia, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan, after the largest prisoner swap in post-Cold War history. The plane carrying four Americans freed from Russian imprisonment landed at the Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Thursday (local time), where their families waited in earnest.
The prisoners included US journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist with dual US-Russia citizenship, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a political activist, journalist, author and filmmaker who was detained in April 2022, along with Gershkovich and Whelan. They were received by Biden, Harris and their overwhelmed families who had been waiting for their release for years.
The White House said the US had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries. The deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia.
More to follow…