Russia has agreed to a prisoner swap with the United States and Germany to free Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the largest exchange to take place since the end of the Cold War.
The deal will reportedly release numerous Russian spies and prisoners including Vadim Krasikov, a pro-Putin assassin who was jailed for an attack in Germany, in return for several foreign captives such as Mr Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a US marine.
Here is the list of the captives released on either side under the terms of a deal.
West
Evan Gershkovich, 32
An American journalist for the Wall Street Journal who specialised in covering Russia. The Russian federal security service arrested Gershkovich during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, accusing him of holding intelligence for the CIA. Both the Journal and the US government have strongly denied this.
Paul Whelan, 54
A former US marine with British, Canadian, Irish and US citizenship. Whelan was arrested by Russia in 2018 on spying charges and jailed for 16 years in June 2020. At the time of his arrest, he had been working as head of security for BorgWarner, a car parts manufacturer.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, 42
A Russian-British political activist who was arrested in April 2022, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, initially on the charge of discrediting the army. Kara-Murza was then charged with treason the following October. After being sentenced to 23 years in prison he continued to write articles from his prison cell, earning himself a Pulitzer prize.
Kevin Lik, 19
German-Russian citizen thrown in jail for supposedly emailing pictures to a foreign state on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Lik was convicted of treason, the youngest ever person to be prosecuted for that crime in Russia. He was born in the German town of Montabaur but moved to Russia when he was 12.
Oleg Orlov, 71
A Russian human rights activist from the organisation Memorial. Orlov has been an opponent of Soviet Union repression for decades, but most recently was arrested for criticising the invasion of Ukraine and for the charge of discrediting the army. He was jailed for two years by a Russian court in February 2024.
Lilia Chanysheva, 42
Russian and a close associate of Alexei Navalny, the slain opposition leader. Chanysheva was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment in June 2023 on extremism charges. Before her arrest, she ran one of Navalny’s regional anti-corruption organisations.
Ilya Yashin, 41
A prominent Kremlin critic who was jailed for eight years over his criticism of the war in Ukraine. Yashin was also charged with spreading false information about the Russian army. “With that hysterical sentence, the authorities want to scare us all but it effectively shows their weakness,” Yashin has said of his case.
Alsu Kurmasheva, 47
A Russian-American journalist who works for Radio Free Europe. Kurmasheva was arrested in October 2023 on charges of failing to register with the authorities as a foreign agent – the term Moscow now uses for anyone deemed to receive funding from abroad. She was facing a jail sentence of up to five years prior to the prisoner exchange deal.
Dieter Voronin
A Russian-German citizen who was sentenced by a court in Moscow in 2023 to 13 years in prison. He was accused of passing intelligence to the BND, the German equivalent of MI6. However both the BND and Voronin himself denied this.
Rico Krieger
A German citizen who was sentenced to death in Belarus for allegedly acting for Ukrainian intelligence services. But in a surprise twist in his case, he recently received a pardon from the authorities. Belarus is the last remaining country in Europe to impose the death sentence, which it carries out by shooting.
Patrick Schoebel
A German tourist who travelled to Russia for a holiday – but was found carrying cannabis gummy bears, which meant he fell foul of Russian draconian drug laws. He was imprisoned and pictures of his gummy bears were paraded on Russian media outlets by the authorities. Schoebel had chosen Russia as his travel destination partly because he wanted to meet a woman he met online, according to German media.
Herman Moyzhes
A Russian-German lawyer who was arrested in May 2024 for assisting Russians to acquire EU residency permits. He was being held prior to the exchange deal in Lefortovo, a prison with a dark history of Stalinist torture and executions.
Ksenia Fadeyeva
A close Russian ally of Navalny, Fadeyeva was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony on charges of organising the activities of an extremist group. She was arrested in 2021 and initially released, only to be placed back in custody some time later. The latter stages of her trial were held behind closed doors.
Vadim Ostanin
Another Navalny ally, Ostanin was sentenced to nine years in prison for membership of an “extremist community,” a reference to Navalny’s opposition to Putin. He was thrown in prison despite only carrying out legal and political work for Navalny’s organisation.
Andrey Pivovarov, 42
A Russian activist who was sent to a penal colony on charges of assisting an “undesirable” organisation, the campaign group Open Russia. Pivovatov was sentenced to four years imprisonment in July 2022 and then transferred to Penal Colony 7 in February 2023.
Sasha Skochilenko, 33
A Russian artist and poet, Skochilenko was arrested in April 2022 after she handed out anti-war leaflets in a grocery shop in Russia. She was then sentenced to seven years imprisonment for “dissemination of knowingly false information about the armed forces of the Russian Federation”.
Russia
Vadim Krasikov, 58
A notorious pro-Putin hitman who gunned down a Chechen dissident while speeding through Berlin’s Tiergarten on a bicycle, earning him the moniker of the Berlin bicycle killer. Krasikov has previously been named by Kremlin officials as the prisoner they wanted to see returned from Germany in exchange for Western prisoners. Krasikov had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen of Chechen heritage.
Vladislav Klyushin, 43
A Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin. Klyushin has been serving a nine-year sentence in the United States for his role in a $100 million stock market scam involving funds stolen by computer hacking. The Kremlin had suggested he could form part of a prisoner exchange for US captives.
Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva
Two Russian deep-cover spies who were arrested in Slovenia, where they pleaded guilty to espionage during a swift trial. They posed as a Spanish-speaking Argentine couple and had two children together as part of their cover identities. They were both speedily convicted on Wednesday, a move that allowed them to be part of the prison exchange the following day.
Mikhail Mikushin
A Russian spy who entered Norway under a Brazilian identity and took up work as an academic. He was arrested while working as a lecturer at Arctic University of Norway on charges of assisting Russian intelligence agencies.
Pavel Rubtsov
A Russian GRU operative who worked under the cover of a Spanish journalist, covering various Russia-involved conflicts. He was arrested by Polish authorities on the border with Ukraine on Feb 27 2022 and later accused of spying for Russia.
Roman Seleznev, 40
A Russian computer hacker who worked under the alias “Tracker2”. Seleznev was indicted in the United States in 2011 for causing $169 million in damages to various financial institutions. Relatives of Whelan, a US prisoner, say that he was arrested as part of Moscow’s efforts to secure an exchange for Seleznev.
Vadim Konoshchenok, 48
A colonel and Russian FSB operative who was arrested in Estonia on charges of procuring advanced military equipment for the Russian war effort against Ukraine. He was extradited to the US after being arrested.
The post Bicycle assassins and a teenager: Who could be involved in the prisoner swaps with Russia? appeared first on The Telegraph.
