Who was released in the prisoner exchange between Russia and the West?

Most important points
  • The deal involved moving 16 prisoners from Russia to the West and sending eight who were held in the West back to Russia.
  • Many of those released had collaborated with Alexei Navalny, Russia’s main opposition leader, who died in February under unclear circumstances.
  • According to the Kremlin, Russia had decided to pardon and release prisoners in order to bring Russian prisoners home.
Russia and the West have freed a total of 24 prisoners in the largest exchange since the end of the Cold War, officials said Thursday.
The deal involved moving 16 prisoners from Russia to the West and sending eight prisoners held in the West back to Russia.
And are among the prisoners released under the deal, which was negotiated in secret for more than a year.
Germany confirmed that Vadim Krasikov, a colonel in Russia’s FSB security service, was serving a life sentence for was sent back to Russia.

The White House said the US had negotiated trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries.

A man dressed in a black T-shirt and a checked shirt is led by the arm by a man whose face is covered with a military camouflage mask.

US Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was one of the prisoners released in the exchange. Source: AP / Russian Federal Security Service via RTR

Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Belarus were also involved in the exchange. Türkiye coordinated the exchange

Who are the other released prisoners?

Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death in Belarus for terrorism, was pardoned on Tuesday by President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Putin, before being released.
Also released was Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident who was serving 25 years for treason after telling the Arizona House of Representatives in March 2022 that Putin was bombing Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools.
Human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin were also released along with him.
Many of those released had collaborated with Alexei Navalny, Russia’s main opposition leader, .
His widow Yulia Navalnaya, who has vowed to continue his work, called the releases “a great happiness”.
“Every released political prisoner is a huge victory and joy. No one should be held hostage by Putin, tortured and die in Putin’s prison,” she wrote on X.
The names released from the US are Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin and Vadim Konoshchenok.

Seleznev, the son of a Russian parliamentarian, was convicted in the US in 2017 for hacking more than 500 companies and stealing millions of credit card numbers.

Vladimir Putin greets a man next to an airplane.

Vladimir Putin welcomed Russian citizens at Moscow airport after they were released as part of the prisoner exchange. Source: Environmental Protection Authority / Mikhail Voskresenskiy / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool

Businessman Klyushin was convicted in Boston in 2023 of wire fraud and securities fraud, among other charges, in a nearly $100 million ($154 million) scheme based on secret profit information stolen through hacking of U.S. computer networks.

Konoshchenok was extradited from Estonia to the US last year, accused of smuggling munitions and dual-use technology for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

‘A piece of diplomacy’: Joe Biden

The massive exchange comes in the final months of US President Joe Biden’s term .
Biden’s four-year term has been marked by a sharp increase in tensions between the US and Russia over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden called the deal “a feat of diplomacy and friendship” and praised allies for their “courageous and bold decisions.”

“This would not have been possible without our allies,” he said, adding: “Today is a powerful example of why it is essential to have friends in this world.”

A smiling teenage girl stands next to US President Joe Biden, who stands behind a lectern with the official presidential coat of arms on the front.

President Joe Biden sang Happy Birthday to the nearly 13-year-old daughter of released prisoner Alsu Kurmasheva, Miriam Butorin. Source: AP / Evan Vucci

Relatives of some of the released prisoners appeared with Biden at the White House on Thursday as he announced the swap deal. Biden also called other family members who were unable to travel to Washington.

Administration officials said the multi-nation deal appeared to be a one-time agreement that would not ease tensions between the nuclear-armed countries.

“After the parties’ ratification procedures were completed, the detainees, with the approval and instructions of the MIT, were put on the planes of the countries they were to travel to,” Turkey’s National Intelligence Service (MIT) said in a statement.

What did Russia say?

According to the Kremlin, Russia had decided to pardon and release prisoners in order to bring the Russian prisoners home.

Russian President Vladimir Putin himself had indicated that he wanted Krasikov back and the German government said in response to the swap deal that it was “not an easy decision” to release him.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, an outspoken supporter of Russia’s war in Ukraine that has led to the arrest of hundreds of critics and brought relations with the US to their worst level since the Cold War, criticized the freedmen in a Telegram post.

“Let the traitors now feverishly invent new names and actively disguise themselves under witness protection programs,” he wrote.

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