Paul Whelan saluted as he emerged from the plane and walked down the steps onto American soil. Next came Evan Gershkovich, smiling and looking slightly disbelieving on the tarmac. Alsu Kurmasheva was last, seized in a tight hug by her two daughters and husband after greeting President Biden and Vice President Harris.
The three Americans, who had all been imprisoned in Russia on charges criticized by the Biden administration as illegitimate, were returning home after the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War. Biden and Harris greeted them shortly before midnight on Thursday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where they were flown after the exchange took place in Turkey.
Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was detained in March last year and accused of spying for the United States. Whelan, a security consultant and former Marine, was arrested by Russian authorities in December 2018 and convicted of espionage in 2020. Kurmasheva, an editor with the U.S.-funded, editorially independent Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was detained in June 2023 and sentenced this summer to 6½ years in a Russian penal colony on a charge of spreading false information about the Russian military.
They were among 24 people freed in an exchange of prisoners held in seven countries — Russia and Belarus on one side, and the United States, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway on the other. On the Russian side, 16 prisoners were released, including one who had been imprisoned in Belarus, with German and American citizens and Russian dissidents among the group, the majority of whom were flown to Germany. Russia received eight people in return, including assassin Vadim Krasikov, who had been imprisoned by Germany, and two hackers and an alleged smuggler with intelligence links held in the United States.
President Biden, looking elated, jogged over to reporters after greeting the three freed Americans, expressing “great satisfaction” and “relief” that they were home.
Whelan’s sister, Kurmasheva’s husband and daughters, and Gershkovich’s parents, sister and brother-in-law were in attendance at the reunion. Also there were members of the Wall Street Journal staff, including editor-in-chief Emma Tucker. The newspaper had run a 16-month pressure campaign to have its reporter brought home. “Today is a joyous day,” Tucker said earlier.
The White House has framed the deal as a diplomatic coup for Biden. But the swap also has raised questions about the wisdom of participating in negotiations with regimes that could imprison innocent people for leverage.
Biden at Joint Base Andrews responded to the criticism that the prisoner swap could provide incentive to unfriendly nations to detain Americans for their own advantage: “I don’t buy this idea that you’re … going to let these people rot in jail because other people may be captured,” he said.
He was also asked whether he had a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Stop,” was his reply. He did not elaborate. To the American people, he said: “There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together — nothing, nothing, nothing.”
Before speaking to reporters, he appeared to pin a U.S. flag from his own lapel to Whelan, who spent more than 2,043 days in detention according to his family.
Harris also addressed reporters, telling them it was a “very good night.” She stressed the “importance of building alliances and building the strength that we have through diplomacy.”
Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist, author and opposition politician who holds U.S. permanent residency — who won a Pulitzer Prize this year for columns published in The Washington Post — will return to the United States after reuniting with his family in Germany, White House officials said.
Tucker said in a memo to the Wall Street Journal newsroom that Gershkovich would be flying on to Texas. She did not specify where, but Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio has a reintegration program that has treated other freed detainees in recent years, including WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was held by Russia, and Travis King, who was held by North Korea.
