Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan landed back into the U.S. late Thursday night after a prisoner swap with Russia, the biggest in post-Soviet history. The multinational deal set about two dozen people free, according to officials in Turkey, where the exchange took place. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were among those who joined the families of the three Americans at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington D.C. Gershkovich was accused of spying in March 2023. Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, was jailed in Russia on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless. Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza were also released from Russian custody.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said earlier Thursday that the U.S. had been working on a deal to free Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny before he died earlier this year while imprisoned by the Russian government. Harris said she spoke on Thursday with Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya. Meantime, WNBA star Brittney Griner, who went through her own high-profile prisoner exchange with Russia in 2022 after she had been sentenced to nine years in jail for drug possession and smuggling, said she was “head over heels happy for the families.”
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