Three Americans recently released from Russian prisons were reunited with their families late Thursday at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
Former Marine Paul Whelan and American journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Evan Gershkovich were greeted with cheers as they exited the plane that brought them back to the United States. US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris greeted the freed Americans with hugs.
“It's a wonderful feeling, we've been waiting for it for a long time,” President Biden told reporters gathered at the air base, adding that “alliances make a difference.”
The landmark deal saw the United States and allies secure the release of 16 political prisoners on Thursday, including the three Americans and Pulitzer Prize winner Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The agreement also secured the release of German nationals and Russian political prisoners, including 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 .
Russia, in return, received eight individuals.
It marked the largest prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia since the Cold War.
Of the Americans, Paul Phelan, a former US Marine, was arrested in Moscow in 2018. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges, which he and the US government deny.
Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich and Radio Free Europe journalist Kurmasheva were arrested in 2023 and sentenced in separate closed trials on July 19. The court proceedings were widely described as fabricated.
Mr. Kara-Murza, an activist and journalist at The Washington Post, had been arrested since April 2022. The politician and historian won the Pulitzer Prize for his letters written from prison.
