Daily Times

Journalist Evan Gershkovich, ex-US marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva returned to the United States on Thursday, hours after being freed from detention in Russia in the biggest prisoner exchange between the two countries since the Cold War.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greeted journalist Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans Thursday as they arrived back on US soil after being freed by Russia in a huge prisoner swap. Biden and Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after the president dropped out of the 2024 election, were at Joint Base Andrews near Washington to welcome back the freed prisoners at around 11:40 pm (0340 GMT).

Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich, former US marine Paul Whelan, and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were greeted by cheers from family and friends as they disembarked a plane, before each embracing Biden and Harris. They were among two dozen prisoners released earlier Thursday in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.

A fourth freed prisoner, Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian Kremlin critic with US residency, was also among those freed but was returning separately to the United States.

In total 10 Russians, including two minors, were exchanged for 16 Westerners and Russians imprisoned in Russia in a dramatic exchange on the airport tarmac in Turkey’s capital Ankara.

“Their brutal ordeal is over,” Biden told a news conference at the White House earlier, flanked by the overjoyed families of the freed prisoners.

Harris earlier welcomed their release after an “appalling perversion of justice.”

Historic swap

The most high profile prisoner was Gershkovich, 32, who was detained in Russia in March 2023 on a reporting trip and sentenced in July to 16 years in prison on spying charges that were denounced by the US.

Gershkovich’s family said in a statement that they had “waited 491 days for Evan’s release.”

“We can’t wait to give him the biggest hug and see his sweet and brave smile up close,” they said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier given his own hero’s welcome to the freed prisoners from his country, in a mirror image of the ceremony that would unfold in the US.

They included Vadim Krasikov, a Russian intelligence agent imprisoned in Germany for assassinating a former Chechen rebel.