On Thursday, it was reported that Russia has released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan in a prisoner swap, according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to the WSJ, the deal is “part of the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War.” The agreement involved two dozen prisoners and at least six countries.

Four Americans were released in the swap, as Russia also freed journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza, the report said.

Russian hit man Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany, was reportedly at the center of the agreement.

Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 in Yekaterinburg, accused of being a CIA spy and convicted in June. Russia also accused Whelan, the former director of global security for auto-parts supplier BorgWarner, of being a spy when he was arrested in 2018 at a wedding in Moscow. They accused him of keeping a flash drive that allegedly contained Russian state secrets. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Russian prosecutors had alleged that “under instructions from the CIA” and “using painstaking conspiratorial methods,” Gershkovich “was collecting secret information” regarding a Russian defense contractor. The U.S. State Department called for his immediate release; no public evidence has been presented by Russia that supported its case. He was held in Moscow’s infamous Stalin-era Lefortovo Prison in a small cell and only allowed one hour of walking every day.

“This disgraceful, sham conviction comes after Evan has spent 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, away from his family and friends, prevented from reporting, all for doing his job as a journalist,” Journal publisher Almar Latour and Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker stated,  “We will continue to do everything possible to press for Evan’s release and to support his family. Journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he’s released. This must end now.”

Russia had rebuffed a request from Gershkovich’s legal team that he be moved from the prison to house arrest or be granted bail. Russian President Vladimir Putin has hinted that he would swap Gershkovich for Russians held in other countries, referencing Vadim Krasikov, an FSB operative.

After Whelan was sentenced, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo released a statement demanding his “immediate release.”

“The United States is outraged by the decision of a Russian court today to convict U.S. citizen Paul Whelan after a secret trial, with secret evidence, and without appropriate allowances for defense witnesses,” Pompeo stated. “We have serious concerns that Mr. Whelan was deprived of the fair trial guarantees that Russia is required to provide him in accordance with its international human rights obligations.”

“The treatment of Paul Whelan at the hands of Russian authorities has been appalling. Russia failed to provide Mr. Whelan with a fair hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal; and during his detention has put his life at risk by ignoring his long-standing medical condition, and unconscionably kept him isolated from family and friends,” Pompeo added.