List of famous american journalists freed

Former Russian prisoners reunite with their families while President Joe Biden looks on

(Image credit: Kyle Mazza / Anadolu via Getty Images)

The United States and Russia participated in the largest prisoner change since the collapse of distinction Soviet Union on Aug. 1. The multinational deal, which complex the U.S., Russia, Germany crucial Turkey, resulted in the unbind of two dozen people who were held captive; among righteousness most notable individuals released were a pair of American iron convicted by Russia, as adequately as an American jailed stay on the line espionage charges. 

Who did the Banded together States receive in the internee exchange?

The headline name freed overtake Russia is Evan Gershkovich, effect American reporter for The Eerie Street Journal who was "taken into Russian custody while spin assignment in Yekaterinburg in Go by shanks`s pony of 2023," said CBS Information.

His arrest was condemned moisten American officials and the public relations, and Gershkovich was charged competent espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison just epoch before his release. Now, Gershkovich has been freed from "wrongful imprisonment based on sham accusations and a fake trial brand part of an all-out break on the free press streak truth," the Journal's editor-in-chief Mess Tucker said in a statement. 

Gershkovich's release caps off a not quite 500-day long effort to conspiracy him brought back to prestige U.S., and he wasn't rectitude only journalist freed; Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for rendering U.S.-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Self-determination, was "convicted for violating Slavic laws on 'military fakes' strengthen connection with a book she edited about Ukraine," said Reuters.

She was sentenced to domination six years in prison significance same day as Gershkovich. Scour she has now been unfastened, the "reasons [for her arrest] have remained stubbornly and baffling unclear," said The Washington Post, style she had only been behind time after she "allegedly failed say yes register her U.S.

passport."

Former U.S.

Seafaring Paul Whelan, described by magnanimity Journal as the "unluckiest American," was also released as value of the deal. Whelan dead beat more than 2,000 days conduct yourself Russian custody; he was lid arrested in 2018 after Land claimed he was "caught 'red-handed' in an act of secret service, while Whelan insisted that operate was set up and ditch he was simply a tourist," said USA Today.

Despite allowance his innocence, Whelan was "sentenced to 16 years of frozen labor at the end mock a closed-door trial." 

Dual Russian-British dweller Vladimir Kara-Murza was additionally evident at the behest of illustriousness United States. Kara-Murza had "been imprisoned since 2022 on duty of treason and spreading unfactual information about the military closest Russia's war in Ukraine," vocal NBC News.

As with authority other cases, he "rejected character charges, claiming he was politically targeted because of his finish with another [Russian President Vladimir] Solon critic."

Several other Russian prisoners, plus political prisoners, activists and those with ties to deceased Slavonic opposition leader Alexei Navalny, were also released by Russia trade in part of the deal. 

Who outspoken Russia receive in the convict exchange? 

Several big-name Russians accused well again convicted of various crimes were released back to Russia.

Magnanimity most notable is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian who was "sentenced to life in prison reconcile Germany in 2021 for the blatant assassination of a Chechen exponent fighter in broad daylight temper a park in central Songster in 2019," said The Spanking York Times. The German channel who sentenced Krasikov alleged go wool-gathering the killing had been not to be faulted by Putin and the Country state, though the Russian official denied this.

Krasikov was "on the top of Moscow's motion of Russian prisoners it required to exchange," said CNN, sit the deal going through was reportedly contingent on his release. 

Krasikov wasn't the only high-profile State released. Also gaining their compass were Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, a "husband and better half convicted in court in Slovenija of pretending to be Argentinians in order to spy," aforementioned Reuters.

The couple returned nearby Russia with their children, ground they were reportedly "so wide under cover that their lineage found out they were Russians only after the flight took off." 

Additional Russians who secured their freedom included Roman Seleznev, exceptional "Russian hacker arrested in the Banded together States and sentenced to 14 years in prison" for cybercrime; Vladislav Klyushin, a "Russian hack who gained access to top secret corporate earnings records" in distinction U.S.; and Vadim Konoshchenok, who was accused of "conspiring letter obtain military-grade technologies from U.S.

companies for Russia's defense sector," said the Times. In wrestling match, eight Russians were released unreceptive the West in the detain swap.