Largest U.S.-Moscow Prisoner Swap Since Cold War Goes Ahead

A major prisoner swap went ahead yesterday in Turkey's capital Ankara when the United States and Russia exchanged 24 prisoners. The exchange was the largest in post-Cold War history after the biggest ever prisoner swap that saw 27 agents exchanged in 1985 between the U.S., the Soviet Union and allied countries in Berlin.

As a result, Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. marine accused of spying, Paul Whelan, have walked free from detention in Russia together with 14 more persons delivered to the United States. Russia received eight prisoners, among them Vadim Krasikov, convicted in Germany in 2021 of killing a former Chechen rebel and also rumored to have been involved in the death of Putin's former mentor Anatoly Sobchak in the year 2000.

Since the major 1985 exchange, Russia, the U.S. and its allies have exchanged prisoners infrequently. Notable occasions include the freeing of GRU colonel and British double agent Sergei Skripal in 2010, who was later attacked and nearly killed in the UK with the Novichok nerve agent, and the exchange of U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in 2022.