Photo by Federal Security Service of Russia / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
New video footage reveals the moment that Russia freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, and others in a massive prisoner swap that took place in Turkey on Thursday.
Gershkovich, Whelan, and 14 others were released as part of a historic and high-stakes exchange with Russia that marked the most complex prisoner swap since the Cold War. President Joe Biden and other top officials confirmed that the Americans are now on their way to the US.
Russia's Federal Security Service, more commonly known as the FSB, released several videos of the tense prisoner exchange at an airport in Turkey. The footage was then widely distributed by state-owned media agency RIA Novosti.
One video shows masked Russian agents escorting Gershkovich, Whelan, and others by a bus and then boarding a plane in Moscow before flying to the Turkish capital of Ankara, where the swap occurred. A follow-up video captured from the airplane cabin shows Gershkovich looking out the window during transit.
Another video shows the freed Americans getting on one of three buses on the tarmac in Turkey. This appears to be the moment they are exchanged.
"All told, we've negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia — including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country," Biden said.
"Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty," he said. "Today, their agony is over."
The exchange includes Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian-British anti-war activist.
Eight people were swapped back to Russia, and a separate FSB video showed them boarding a plane in Turkey to fly back to Moscow. One of these individuals is Vadim Krasikov, an FSB colonel who was convicted of murdering a rebel leader in Berlin.
Krasikov was at the center of the deal, which involved at least six countries and followed months of high-stakes negotiations between the US, Russia, and Germany.
"We are grateful for the support we had from a number of our allies who made this deal possible, in particular Germany, Poland, Norway, and Slovenia," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. "We further appreciate the Turkish government providing a location for the safe return of these individuals to the United States and Germany."
FSB Public Relations Centre/ROSSIYA 24 TV Channel via REUTERS
"I know there are many times over those years where they have wondered if our work would ever bear fruit," he added. "But I also know that they never gave up hope, and neither did we."
Gershkovich was arrested on espionage charges and held in pre-trial detention for more than a year before he was convicted in July. There was no public evidence to support the prosecution's case, and both the US government and The Wall Street Journal repeatedly decried his allegations as false.
He spent nearly 500 days behind bars before his release on Thursday.
Whelan was arrested in 2018 on espionage charges and given a 16-year prison sentence in 2020. As was the case with Gershkovich, the Biden administration considered him "wrongfully detained" and argued for his release.
"Russian authorities arrested them, convicted them in show trials, and sentenced them to long prison terms with absolutely no legitimate reason whatsoever. None," Biden said of Gershkovich, Whelan, Kurmasheva, and Kara-Murza.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that he could confirm there was no money exchanged or sanctions loosened to facilitate the prisoner swap. He said the freed Americans would arrive back in the country later on Thursday.
