Oleg Davygora19:56, 01.08.24

The White House chief applauded the efforts of allies who also engaged in difficult negotiations to achieve this result.

The White House has confirmed the release of US citizens as part of a deal with Russia.

In a major prisoner swap, 16 people were released from Russian prisons, US President Joe Biden said in a statement .

“I am grateful to our allies who stood with us through difficult and complex negotiations to achieve this outcome: Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey among them. This is a shining example of why it is so important to have friends you can trust and rely on,” Biden said of the exchange.

Among them are Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, as well as Alsu Kurmasheva, who has Russian and US citizenship, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has an American green card.

“The deal that secured their freedom was a diplomatic feat. In total, we negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country. Some of these women and men had been unjustly held for years. All of them had endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their torment is over,” the statement said.

As the US leader’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan noted, this was the largest exchange in terms of the number of people since the Cold War.

Ilya Yashin, Sasha Skochilenko and a number of other political prisoners are at large, their relatives have confirmed

During the exchange in Ankara, human rights activist Oleg Orlov and former head of Navalny’s headquarters in Tomsk Ksenia Fadeeva were also released. Information about the participation of former director of Open Russia Andrei Pivovarov in the exchange was also confirmed.

Some of the political prisoners released by Russia have flown to Cologne, their relatives report.

Prisoner exchange – details

A record-breaking exchange of 26 prisoners between Russia, the US and Germany took place at Ankara airport . Moscow and Putin personally were most active in seeking the release of FSB killer Vadim Krasikov. 

Turkey’s presidential administration confirmed that those released included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan, German citizen Rico Krieger, who was convicted in Belarus, and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin.

(C)UNIAN 2024