by ZeroHedge News Staff at ZeroHedge
Summary: “Today, three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza,” Biden stated, unveiling the largest US-Russia prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War. “We remember all those still wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world. And reaffirm our pledge to their families: We see you. We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring your loved ones home where they belong.”
Gershkovich’s employer, The Wall Street Journal, confirmed the following brief details of all who were included in the swap:
- Gershkovich was handed over to U.S. authorities at an airport in Ankara, Turkey, and was set to board a plane to the U.S. Russia had kept the 32-year-old behind bars for more than a year on a false allegation of espionage.
- Former Marine Paul Whelan was also released, as well as journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian dissident. Russia also released a number of political dissidents.
- The key to the prisoner deal was freeing Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murder in Germany after he gunned down a rebel leader in Berlin in 2019. Germany said its decision to release him wasn’t taken lightly.
On the Russian side, TASS said: “The Russians were exchanged for a group of persons who acted in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation,” citing the FSB. In total the deal involved 24 prisoners and the cooperation of six countries to accomplish. And the following Russian hackers:
Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian national sentenced last year to nearly a decade in prison after being found guilty by a federal jury in Boston of hacking into corporate earnings databases to steal and trade on nonpublic information. U.S. officials had described Klyushin as having “extensive ties” to the Russian president’s office.
Roman Seleznev, the son of a member of the Russian parliament. Prosecutors had described Seleznev as “one of the most prolific credit-card thieves in history.” He was convicted in 2016 by a federal jury in Seattle on charges of hacking into hundreds of businesses and selling stolen data online, resulting in more than $169 million in fraud losses.
The US government and Turkey meanwhile have released the first photo of the freed Americans after finally being handed over to US officials at an airport in Turkey:…
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