08/02/2024August 2, 2024
What to know about US-Russia prisoner swap that saw Germany play a key role
A was completed Thursday night, with American, German, and Russian leaders each welcoming freed prisoners home.
Among the most in this deal — which is the largest prisoner swap in the post-Soviet era — is Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
He was released with fellow American Paul Whelan, who had been in prison for almost six years after his arrest in 2018 in Moscow. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 on espionage charges he and the US government deny.
But to make the deal happen, decision.
The German state had to give up convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov, a Russian national who was serving a life sentence for having murdered a former Chechen militant in broad daylight in a Berlin park in 2019.
The exchange involved complex negotiations at a time when US-Russia relations are severely strained following . But the exchange showed that some channels of communication were still open.
In total, 12 German nationals and Russian political prisoners have returned to Germany following the swap.
They are: Dieter Voronin, Kevin Lick, Rico Krieger, Patrick Schoebel, Herman Moyzhes, Ilya Yashin, Liliya Chanysheva, Kseniya Fadeyeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrey Pivovarov, Oleg Orlov and Sasha Skochilenko.
Four people returned to the US, and eight to Russia.
rm/msh (Reuters, AP)
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