Brussels – It was the largest prisoner exchange between the East and West since the Cold War. Moscow released 16 people – including journalists Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza -last night (Aug. 1) at the airport in Ankara, Turkey, in exchange for the surrender of eight Russian criminals who were serving sentences in European and American prisons.
Among the 16 released by the Kremlin were also five German citizens and seven Russian nationals who were political prisoners in their own country. On the other side were a pair of Russian spies who operated for years from Slovenia and Vadim Krasikov, a former Moscow intelligence officer who was serving a life sentence for a murder in Germany. “This shows the stark difference,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X: “Innocent EU and US citizens” and “upright Russian democrats” exchanged for “convicted criminals and murderers.”
Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal correspondent sentenced two weeks ago to 16 years in prison in Russia, Kurmasheva, and former US Marine Paul Whelan landed on US soil with the first light of dawn, where their families, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed them. Kara-Murza, a Russian-British citizen holding a US Green card and a Pulitzer Prize winner as a contributor from prison for the Washington Post, traveled first to Germany.
The US president thanked the allies who “stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome— including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey.” In the midst of the campaign climate, Biden did not spare a jab at Donald Trump and the risk of isolation should the Republican candidate win: “This is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world whom you can trust and depend upon. Our alliances make Americans safer,” Biden said.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, thanked “all those, including in Europe, who helped make the diplomatic agreement possible.” The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, in a statement, highlighted the broker role played by Turkey to free activists, human rights defenders, and journalists “unjustly persecuted and imprisoned by Russian and Belarusian regimes for political reasons and held in intolerable conditions.”
I welcome the release of innocent citizens from EU & US and upright Russian democrats held captive in Russia.
The Kremlin swapped them for convicted criminals and murderers.
This shows the stark difference.
This is a moment of great joy for all who have fought for their…
– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 1, 2024
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
