Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Hershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan, who were released as part of a prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries, have returned to the United States.
The plane carrying them landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., where they were greeted by U.S. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, relatives and colleagues. “I was absolutely confident that we could get this done,” Biden told reporters.
Evan Hershkovich urged not to forget other political prisoners imprisoned in Russia.
Yesterday, Western countries and Russia held a prisoner exchange. 16 people held in colonies in Russia and Belarus were exchanged for 8 Russians in Western prisons.
13 people flew to Cologne last night: politicians Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr. and Ilya Yashin, former executive director of the Open Russia movement Andrei Pivovarov, human rights activist and co-chairman of Memorial Oleg Orlov, artist Aleksandra Skochilenko, former heads of Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa, Tomsk and Barnaul Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva and Vadim Ostanin, Kevin Leek, Dieter (Demuri) Voronin, Herman Meuges, Patrick Schebel and German citizen Rico Krieger.
According to Meduza and Rain, they were taken to a medical center for examination, where they will probably stay until the fourth of August. Ilya Yashin in his Telegram channel published the first photo of him at large. He wrote: “I’ll tell you everything soon. In the meantime, just thank you to everyone who was worried. I hug you all!”.
Western countries in yesterday’s exchange released several Russian citizens accused of various crimes in Europe and the US. Among them are alleged FSS officer Vadim Krasikov, serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a former Chechen warlord, Artyom and Anna Dultsev, convicted in Slovenia of spying for Russia, Mikhail Mikushin and Pavel Rubtsov accused of espionage by Norwegian and Polish authorities, Roman Seleznyov, sentenced to a long term in the U.S. for hacking attacks; Vadim Konoschenok, an alleged FSS officer accused of violating the sanctions regime, and Vladislav Klushin, a contractor of the law enforcement agencies for monitoring the blogosphere, convicted in the United States for stock trading involving hacking.
The released Russians were met at the government airport Vnukovo-2 by “Russian President” Vladimir Putin, the heads of the FSS and Foreign Intelligence Service, and the Minister of Defense. Putin hugged Krasikov, presented flowers to Anna Dultseva, thanked those who were on duty and promised them new appointments and government awards.
