Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan have been released by Russia, where they had been held prisoners, in the largest prisoner swap between the East and the West since the Cold War. The Wall Street Journal reports that over a dozen people in total jailed by the Kremlin were exchanged for Russians who had been held in the US and Europe.

Shortly after the release, Joe Biden stated, "The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy. Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”

In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, US journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza, also a Russian-British dissident, were released. Kara-Murza, a US green card holder, had been jailed for 25 years.

In a White House briefing the president re-iterated how the men had all found themselves visiting Russia for various reasons and were "falsely accused of being spies" and were arrested "for no legitimate reason."

In a statement posted to X, Biden credited allies Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey for standing with the US through "complex negotiations." 16 people in total were released from Russia. In exchange, the Kremlin received 8 prisoners including hitman Vadim Krasikov who had been serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a rebel leader in Berlin Park. Krasikov was reportedly pivotal to the deal, as Putin had been pushing for his release since 2021.

Krasikov had shot Chechen fighter Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili in broad daylight, "execution style," per CNN. He was convicted of murder in Germany in 2019 and a court determined he acted on behalf of the Russian state. Other Russians released from the US 

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