Historic U.S. - Russia Prisoner Swap Includes 24 Detainees

The United States and Russia carried out a historic prisoner exchange when two dozen detainees, including former US Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, were released as part of a sweeping deal that involved at least seven countries.

Evan Gershkovich landed what he told friends he regarded as a dream assignment in Moscow in 2022 - reporting for a famous newspaper on one of the world's top stories, at the age of just 31.

But the new job turned into a hellish ordeal when Gershkovich became the first American journalist since the Cold War to be arrested in Russia with investigators accusing him of collecting sensitive military information for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a charge he and his employer denied.

During the 16 months he was held, The Wall Street Journal reporter became a Kremlin bargaining chip as President Vladimir Putin held out the prospect of exchanging him in a deal with Washington.

Initially kept in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo jail, a Russian court handed him a 16-year sentence in a rushed and secret trial in July 2024 after convicting him of trying to gather military secrets about a tank factory that is central to Russia's war machine.

His employer and the U.S. government said he was innocent and had been subjected to a sham trial. The Kremlin maintained he had been caught spying "red-handed."

Gershkovich's fate played out against the background of the war in Ukraine which, in the Kremlin's words, had plunged relations with the United States to "below zero".

A total of eight people, including Krasikov, were swapped back to Russia in exchange for the release of 16 people who were held in Russian detention, including four Americans.

In addition to Whelan and Gershkovich, prominent Putin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is a US permanent resident, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were also freed.