Freed Americans arrive in historic prisoner exchange

Three Americans recently released from Russian custody were reunited with their families Thursday evening at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.

Former US Marine Paul Whelan and American journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich were greeted with cheers as they stepped off the plane that returned them to US soil. US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greeted the freed Americans with hugs.

“It’s a wonderful feeling, it’s been a long process,” Biden told reporters gathered at the air base, adding: “Partnerships make all the difference. They stepped up and put themselves on the line for us.”

The landmark prisoner deal allowed the United States and its allies on Thursday to secure the release of 16 political prisoners, including the three Americans and permanent resident columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was due to return separately to the United States.

The agreement also secured the release of German citizens and Russian political prisoners, including 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.

Russia, in exchange, received eight people.

It was the largest prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.

Of the Americans, the longest-held was Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, who was arrested in Moscow in 2018. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony on espionage charges that he and the US government deny.

Wall Street Journal journalist Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Kurmasheva were arrested in 2023 and convicted in separate closed-door trials on July 19. The trials were widely criticized as shams.

Kara-Murza, an activist and Washington Post columnist, had been in detention since April 2022. The politician and historian won a Pulitzer Prize for his letters written from prison.

On the Russian side, the Kremlin negotiated the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany following his conviction in 2019 for the murder of a Chechen dissident in Berlin. He had previously been in the running to be exchanged for opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who died in February 2024.

Other people who returned to Russia include Artem Viktorovich Dultsev and Anna Valerevna Dultseva from Slovenia; Mikhail Valeryevich Mikushin from Norway; Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov of Poland; and Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin and Vadim Konoshchenock, from the United States.

Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed the freed prisoners back to his country, saying: “I want to congratulate you on your return to your homeland.”

Paul Beckett, an assistant editor at the Journal who led the paper’s campaign to secure Gershkovich’s release, told VOA earlier this year that his colleague’s imprisonment highlights the dangers facing journalists around the world.

“It’s certainly a reminder to all of our journalists who are in dangerous places that journalism is a risky business,” Beckett said. “It’s a noble and valuable endeavor that some governments around the world really don’t like.”

Learning that Gershkovich had been officially released brought on a range of emotions for Beckett, he told VOA on Thursday.

“Joy, gratitude, tears, smiles, all at once,” she said. “We are thrilled for Evan.”

After working on the Gershkovich case for 16 months, Beckett said he is looking forward to finally meeting the journalist for the first time. “I’m going to say, ‘Nice to meet you,'” Beckett said.

Gershkovich was jailed in March 2023 on espionage charges that are widely regarded as unfounded and politically motivated.

“We are overwhelmed with relief and elated for Evan and his family, as well as the others who have been released,” Journal publisher Almar Latour and editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said in a statement. “Unfortunately, many journalists remain unjustly imprisoned in Russia and around the world.”

Kurmasheva, meanwhile, is a Prague-based editor for the Tatar-Bashkir Service of VOA’s sister station Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The American-Russian citizen traveled to Russia in May 2023 to care for her ailing mother.

When Kurmasheva tried to leave the country in June 2023, authorities confiscated her passports and she was waiting for them to be returned when she was detained in October 2023.

The U.S. State Department had not designated Kurmasheva as unjustly detained. However, a senior administration official told VOA that Kurmasheva became part of the negotiations shortly after she was detained and that the U.S. is happy to bring her home.

A similar deal in 2022 led to the release of American basketball player Brittney Griner in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence in the United States.

RFE/RL welcomed Kurmasheva’s release in a statement.

“Alsu was targeted because she was an American journalist who was simply trying to care for a family member inside Russia. She did nothing wrong and certainly did not deserve the unfair treatment and forced separation from her beloved family and colleagues,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in the statement.

“Alsu’s release makes us even more determined to secure the freedom of three other RFE/RL journalists,” Capus added. Two RFE/RL journalists are currently imprisoned in Belarus and one is incarcerated in Russian-occupied Crimea.

The United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees RFE/RL and VOA, also welcomed Kurmasheva’s release.

“This is incredible news and I am incredibly grateful to everyone who supported and advocated for Alsu’s release in the wake of Russia’s cruel injustice,” USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett said in a statement. “Journalism is not a crime. I am happy that Alsu can finally return home to her loved ones and close this painful chapter.”

Kurmasheva’s husband, Pavel Butorin, said that since her arrest, his main concern has been the couple’s daughters.

“They are old enough to understand the brutality of the regime that captured their mother,” she told VOA in early July at her home in Prague. “We dream of our family being reunited after this terrible experience.”

The couple’s eldest daughter, Bibi, said she missed the little moments with her mother, like when they would listen to loud music together on the car ride to school in the morning.

“And on the way home from school, she would always bring snacks and we would always talk about our day. I really miss that,” the 16-year-old said.

The Biden administration has now helped secure the release of more than 70 Americans who were taken hostage or wrongfully imprisoned around the world, Biden said in his statement.

“I will not stop working until every American unjustly detained or held hostage around the world is reunited with their family,” he said.

At a midday news conference, Biden spoke about the importance of the prisoner exchange as the families of the newly freed Americans rallied behind him. Toward the end, people in the room sang Happy Birthday to Miriam Butorin, Kurmasheva’s youngest daughter, who will celebrate her 13th birthday on Friday.

“Now he’ll be able to celebrate with his mother,” Biden said. “That’s what this is all about: families being able to be together again, the way they should have always been.”

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