Russia prisoner swap: Biden, Harris greet released citizens

Paul Whelan's family said it was "grateful to the United States government for making Paul’s freedom a reality," in a statement following his release.

They said the former marine lost his home and his job while "wrongfully imprisoned in Russia."

"We are unsure how someone overcomes these losses and rejoins society after being a hostage," they said.

"We are grateful for everyone's efforts to help Paul while he was away. We hope you will continue to help him by providing Paul the space and privacy he needs as he rebuilds his life. It is Paul's story to tell and he will tell it when he is able."

Whelan was initially detained in 2018 on espionage charges and spent five years in pre-trial detention before being moved to a labor colony.

Released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has spoken about the other political prisoners he was detained alongside in Russia and expressed his desire that people think and talk about them, too.

"It was great to get on that bus today and see not just Americans and Germans but Russian political prisoners," he told The Guardian and other media on the tarmac in Maryland.

"But I've just spent a month in prison in Yekaterinburg where everybody was a political prisoner. Nobody knows them publicly. They have various political beliefs, not all connected with [Alexei] Navalny supporters, everyone knows about them, so it would be good to see us talk about them and potentially do something about them in the next weeks and months, as well."

Asked how he was doing himself, Gershkovich responded: "I'm alright, it was a good flight."

US Vice President and presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris praised outgoing President Joe Biden in her remarks to the media.

"This is an extraordinary day and I'm very thankful for our President for what he has done his entire career but in particular in relation to these families and these individuals, and what he has been able to do to bring allies together on many issues but particularly this one," she said, stood alongside Biden.

"This is an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and strengthening alliances. This is an incredible day and you can see it in the families and in their eyes."

There were jubilant scenes as Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovic and Alsu Kurmasheva disembarked at Andrews Air Base, Maryland, and were reunited with their families.

Gershkovic embraced his mother, Ella Milman, and Whelan was greeted by his sister, Elizabeth.

In a touching moment, President Joe Biden gave Whelan the US flag pin off his own lapel, while Gershkovic was reunited with his Wall Street Journal colleagues including editor-in-chief Emma Tucker.

The jet carrying three US citizens released from Russia as a part of a large-scale prisoner swap touched down Friday outside Washington.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and relatives of the former prisoners waited to greet them.

"It comes down to trust," Biden told reporters. "Other leaders trust you and you trust them and that's how this got done."

The Americans landed nearly 12 hours after leaving Turkey, where they were among 24 exchanged in the largest post-Soviet prisoner swap.

They were shown smiling on board the jet in a photo released by the White House.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday night said he met some of the Russians and Westerners released from Russia as part of a prisoner swap earlier Thursday.

Scholz said he spoke at length with the people who had arrived in Germany in what he called a "very moving" encounter.

"Many did not expect this to happen now and are still very full of the feelings associated with suddenly being able to be free after all," he told reporters. "Many had feared for their health and even their lives."

Germany played a key role in the prisoner swap, and a total of 12 former detainees landed in Germany. Among the five with German citizenship was Rico Krieger, who was sentenced to death in Belarus on espionage charges before a reprieve this week.

Scholz defended the decision to free Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov, who assassinated a former Chechen rebel commander in a Berlin park and was a key figure sought by the Russians as part of the deal.

"We are a society that is characterized by... the idea of individual freedom and by democracy," Scholz said. "And the fact that those who have to fear for their lives because they have stood up for democracy and freedom can also count on the protection of others is part of our self-image as a democratic ... society." 

Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual US-Russian national and journalist at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist, was detained in October 2023 and charged with failure to register as a foreign agent.

She was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military in what was largely seen as a sham trial. Her family and her employer denied the accusations.

She had traveled to Russia in May 2023 to care for her ailing mother. When Kurmasheva tried to leave the country a month later, authorities confiscated her passports. She was waiting for them to be returned when she was detained.

Kurmasheva had not been designated by the US State Department as wrongfully detained. A senior administration official told the Voice of America, a sister outlet to RFE/RL, that Kurmasheva became part of the negotiations shortly after she was detained, and the US is glad to bring her home.

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

"Alsu was targeted because she was an American journalist who was simply trying to take care of a family member inside Russia. She did nothing wrong and certainly did not deserve the unjust treatment and forced separation from her loving family members and colleagues,” RFE/RL's 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 jailed in Belarus, and one is in detention in Russian-occupied Crimea.

The family of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, one of three Americans released in the prisoner swap, expressed "relief and joy" that he is on his way back to the United States.

Here is their full statement:

"We have waited 491 days for Evan's release, and it's hard to describe what today feels like. We can't wait to give him the biggest hug and see his sweet and brave smile up close.

Most important now is taking care of Evan and being together again. No family should have to go through this, and so we share relief and joy today with Paul and Alsu's families.

We are grateful to President Biden, Secretary Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Chancellor Scholz and every US or foreign government official who helped get Evan released.

Our family has felt so much love and support from Evan's fellow journalists, his wonderful friends, and many, many people around the world. It made a difference to Evan and to us.

And we especially thank Evan's colleagues at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal. They have taken care of Evan and our entire family since the beginning, and we are forever grateful."

 — The Gershkovich family, Ella Milman, Mikhail Gershkovich and Danielle Gershkovich

Russian President Vladimir Putin met the returning Russian national involved in a complex swap of prisoners with Western countries upon their arrival in Moscow late on Thursday. 

He briefly embraced each one as they stepped off the plane at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport.

The eight returnees included Vadim Krasikov, convicted by a German court of killing a Chechen dissident in Berlin.

Putin told them they would be presented with state awards and that he told them that their homeland "had not forgotten them, not for a single minute."

"We will see each other again and talk about your future," he said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday evening it was a very difficult decision to release Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who was serving a life sentence for a 2019 murder in Berlin. 

"It was not easy for anyone to make this decision to deport a murderer sentenced to life imprisonment after only a few years in prison, said Scholz at Cologne/Bonn airport, where he was waiting to welcome freed German prisoners arriving later in the evening from Turkey. 

The chancellor added the interest of the state in seeing Krasikov punished had to be weighed against the danger to life and liberty faced by innocent people in Russian prison, including those imprisoned for political reasons. 

"And that is why it was important to us that we have an obligation to protect German nationals as well as solidarity with the United States," Scholz added. 

Earlier US President Joe Biden said he "particularly" owed "a great sense of gratitude" to Chancellor Scholz. 

The deal "required me to get some significant concessions from Germany, which they originally concluded they could not do because of the person in question," Biden said.

US President Joe Biden says he and the families of the US citizens who were freed as part of the swap were able to speak to them earlier by phone. 

The deal saw the release of three US citizens — Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva — as well as US green card holder Vladimir Kara-Murza. 

"Their families and I were able to speak to them on the telephone from the Oval Office. They're out of Russia and earlier today they were flown to Turkey, and soon they'll be wheels up on the way home to see their families."

He also pointed out that seven of those released from Russian prisons had been political prisoners in their own country, including four who worked with late opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the head of Russian rights group Memorial, Oleg Orlov.

"Now, they can live safely abroad and continue their work of advocating for democracy, if they so choose."

He also appeared to take a swipe at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has expressed his reservations about the NATO defensive alliance.

"This deal would not have been made possible without our allies, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey. They all stepped up and they stood with us and they made bold and brave decisions; Released prisoners being held in their countries, who were justifiably being held, and provided logistical support to get the Americans home."     

"So for anyone who questions whether allies matter; They do; They matter. And today's a powerful example of why it's vital to have friends in this world. Friends you can trust, work with, and depend upon."

"Our alliances make our people safer."

The White House says the United States had been working on a deal that would have freed detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in Russian custody earlier this year.

"We had been working with our partners on a deal that would have included Alexei Navalny, and unfortunately, he died," US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told journalists.

Navalny, who was Russia's most prominent opposition leader, died in February at the age of 47 in a remote Arctic prison colony.

Soon after Navalny's death, US President Joe Biden said there was "no doubt" that Navalny's death "was the consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did."

Navalny's wife Yulia Navalnaya said it was a "joy" to see so many activists and opposition politicians freed.

"Every released political prisoner is a huge victory and a reason to celebrate," Navalnaya said in a post on X, adding that those freed had been "saved from Putin's regime"

"We still have many people to fight for: We will make every effort to ensure that they are freed. Freedom for all political prisoners!"

One of Navalny's closest allies Leonid Volkov said there was a bitter-sweet feeling surrounding the swap.

"Today we're reveling in the release of political prisoners, Putin's hostages who were suffering in Putin's gulag," Volkov said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. "But it still will be joy with tears in our eyes. 'The Navalny swap' has taken place ... But without Navalny. It hurts a lot."

The British government says it "strongly welcomes" the release of its citizens Paul Whelan and Vladimir Kara-Murza in a prisoner exchange deal with Russia.

"I am particularly relieved that British nationals Vladimir Kara-Murza and Paul Whelan will soon be reunited with their families," UK foreign minister David Lammy said in a statement.

Cambridge graduate Kara-Murza is a dual national British and Russian citizen and the holder of a US green card.

Whelan is a citizen of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Last year, the 42-year-old was sentenced to 25 years on charges of treason for opposing the war in Ukraine. 

Cambridge graduate Kara-Murza had spent years campaigning for Western sanctions against the Kremlin.

However, the level of repression has dramatically worsened since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. 

In his closing statement at his trial, Kara-Murza alluded to the former Soviet Union's dark legacy of prosecutions, saying the country has gone "all the way back to the 1930s."

While in prison, his family said they feared for his deteriorating health.

His wife Evgenia Kara-Murza says he suffers from a nerve condition after surviving two poisoning attempts.

Russia's former President Dmitry Medvedev has said he welcomes the release of Russians who had "worked for the Fatherland."

He also issued a menacing threat to those that Russia considers as "traitors."

"I would like, of course, for traitors of Russia to rot in the dungeons or die in prison ... but it is more useful to get out our own, who worked for the country, for the Fatherland, for all of us," Medvedev, who is now deputy head of the security council, said in a post on Telegram.

"Let the traitors now feverishly pick up new names and actively disguise themselves under witness protection programs."

In total, 10 Russians, including two minors, were exchanged for 16 Westerners and Russians who were imprisoned in Russia.