The world is reacting to the historic prisoner exchange Thursday between the United States, Russia and several other countries that saw two dozen detainees released, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
Marking the largest multilateral prisoner exchange since the Cold War, President Biden hailed the deal as “a feat of diplomacy and friendship,” saying he spoke to some of the freed prisoners along with their families from the Oval Office.
Evan Gershkovich (left) and Paul Whelan (right)
AP Photos
In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the exchange freed Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a legal permanent resident of the U.S.
The release of Gershkovich, 32, comes well over a year after the Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting assignment in Yekaterinburg. Following his arrest, the U.S. classified him as unjustly detained.
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Whelan, 54, a former Marine who lived in Michigan, was detained in Russia on espionage charges in Dec. 2018 while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding. The U.S. classified him as wrongfully detained.
Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison following a closed-door trial in June 2020. Gershkovich was sentenced earlier this month to 16 years in prison following a three-day trial in June.
Here is a timeline of events from Gershkovich and Whelan’s arrests in Russia, from their arrests and sentencing to their release Thursday.
Evan Gershkovich
March 29, 2023: Evan Gershkovich arrested
Despite being accredited by Russia’s Foreign Ministry to work as a foreign correspondent, Gershkovich was detained on espionage charges in Yekaterinburg, Russia by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in March 2023.
Gershkovich was reporting on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the impact it had on the country’s economy at the time of his arrest, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Following his arrest, Gershkovich was transported from Yekaterinburg to Moscow.
April 10, 2023: U.S. declares Gershkovich wrongfully detained
Gershkovich’s arrest and subsequent espionage charges were designated wrongful by the U.S. State Department in April 2023. The motion from the Biden administration was meant to put pressure on Russia to release the journalist, with Biden at the time calling Gershkovich’s detainment “totally illegal.”
April 18, 2023: Moscow court upholds Gershkovich’s detention
Gershkovich’s detention in Russia was upheld by a Moscow Court on April 18. The journalist was denied bail and ordered to be held in Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison.
The day before his court appearance, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne M. Tracy was granted consular access to meet with Gershkovich. She said at the time Gershkovich was “in good health and remains strong.”
May 23, 2023: Gershkovich’s parents attend pretrial hearing
Gershkovich’s parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, traveled to Moscow in May 2023 for a pretrial hearing, which ultimately ended with his detention being extended.
Moscow courts would go on to repeatedly delay his trial throughout the course of his detainment before finally holding it in June 2024.
At the time, Gershkovich’s mother told reporters, “Any parent who loves their kid would travel to the end of the world to be with them for five minutes.”
March 29, 2024: Biden releases statement one year after Gershkovich’s arrest
Marking the one-year anniversary of Gershkovich’s detainment, President Joe Biden shared a statement saying he and his administration “will continue working every day to secure his release.”
“Today we mark a painful anniversary: one year of American journalist Evan Gershkovich’s wrongful detention in Russia,” Biden said, adding, “I will never give up hope.”
“We will continue working every day to secure his release. We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips. And we will continue to stand strong against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists – the pillars of free society,” Biden said.
June 26 and July 19, 2023: Gershkovich sentenced to 16 years in prison
After several delays, Gershkovich’s trial began in June with a one-day hearing behind closed doors in the Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, where he was initially arrested.
In July, Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian penal colony on charges of espionage.
The State Prosecutors Office in Russia sought a sentence of 18 years. Gershkovich had faced up to 20 years in prison, based on the charges.
In a joint statement, Dow Jones CEO and The Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour, and The Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker, called the verdict a “disgraceful, sham conviction” for a correspondent who was “doing his job as a journalist.”
August 1, 2024: Gershkovich released in historic prisoner swap
Just weeks after Gershkovich’s sentencing in Russia, the detained journalist was released from prison on Aug. 1 in a historic, multilateral prisoner exchange deal between the U.S., Russia and several other countries.
Russia and the United States have agreed to swap Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in an extraordinary multipart deal, according to officials.
Gershkovich, as well as fellow detainees Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan, were photographed on Thursday holding an American flag ahead of their flight back home.
“Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,” President Biden said in a statement Thursday.
Paul Whelan
December 28, 2018: Paul Whelan arrested in Russia
In December 2018, Russia’s domestic security service reported that they had detained a U.S. citizen in Moscow on suspicion of spying.
“Agents of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in Moscow arrested the U.S. citizen Paul Whelan in the course of committing spy activity,” Russian officials said at the time, but did not provide further details.
January 1, 2019: Whelan’s brother addresses his arrest
During an interview on MSNBC, Whelan’s brother, David, maintained his Paul Whelan’s innocence, saying the former U.S. Marine was visiting Russia with a friend’s wedding party.
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“He loves to travel so I wasn’t at all surprised that he would be confident going to Russia. He has a law enforcement background, he’s got his Marine background, he does corporate security and he’s aware of the risks of traveling in certain parts of the world,” David Whelan said.
Whelan has American, Irish, British and Canadian citizenship. He was discharged from the Marines for bad conduct in 2008 after he was convicted of larceny.
When he was arrested in Russia, Whelan was a global security executive for the auto parts supplier BorgWarner.
MSNBC reported at the time that Whelan had been in Russia only two days when his family stopped hearing from him and learned he had missed the wedding.
January 11, 2019: Whelan formally charged with espionage
Whelan was formally charged under Article 276 of Russia’s criminal code, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in January 2019 but did not provide any further details of the charges against Whelan.
Whelan’s lawyer in Russia, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said at the time that Whelan contested the charges and intended to plead not guilty.
ABC News reported former U.S. intelligence officers speculated Whelan may have been taken in retaliation over the jailing of Maria Butina, the Russian gun rights activist who pleaded guilty in a U.S. court in Dec. 2018 to acting as a foreign agent.
June 2020: Whelan sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison
After a closed-door trial in June, Whelan was convicted of his espionage charges and sentenced by a court in Moscow to 16 years in prison.
Whelan was sent to a penal camp in Mordovia, a region about 300 miles east of Moscow known for its network of prisons.
Speaking to ABC News from prison, Whelan described the conditions of the barracks at Correctional Colony-17, a crumbling former gulag originally built to hold prisoners during World War II.
“It’s pretty grim. Quite dilapidated,” he said. “There’s probably like 50 to 60 of us in the building. So we kind of live on top of each other.”
August 2023: Russian state media released footage of Whelan
Russian state media released rare footage showing Whelan inside a prison camp, providing the first publicly available video images of the imprisoned American in more than three years.
The recording showed Whelan wearing a black uniform and hat among other inmates.
In one scene, Whelan was shown working at a sewing machine. He tells a reporter, “Sir, you understand when I say I can’t do an interview, which means I can’t answer any questions.”
November 2023: Whelan reportedly assaulted in prison
In an audio clip obtained by CNN at the time, Whelan alleged he was assaulted by a fellow prisoner while working at a sewing machine.
Whelan said he was struck in the face “with a closed fist” by a Turkish prisoner.
“I stood up to block the second hit, being concerned that he had sharp shears in his hand that could be used as a weapon. Other prisoners stopped him from further assault while I left the area, looking for guards,” Whelan told CNN.
“There are no guards on the factory floor and it was quite difficult for me to find prison staff to assist,” he added.
December 28, 2023: Whelan marks five years in Russian prison
In December 2023, Whelan had logged five years of being held in Russian detainment and pleaded with President Biden to continue to negotiate his release.
“Please use every resource available to secure my release as you would do if your own son had been taken hostage,” Whelan told CNN at the time.
A year prior, WNBA player Brittney Griner was freed from Russia in a high-level prisoner swap that did not include Whelan.
“I’m more than past ready to return home and I’m counting on the U.S. government to come for me, and soon,” Whelan continued. “The time is now to take decisive action and bring this debacle to a close.”
August 1, 2024: Whelan released in historic prisoner swap
Whelan was freed from prison on Aug. 1 along with American journalist Evan Gershkovich and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
The three individuals were photographed on Thursday holding an American flag ahead of their flight back home to America.
“This is a very good afternoon,” Biden said after delivering remarks at the White House, surrounded by family members of those freed. “Moments ago, the families and I were able to speak to them on the telephone from the Oval Office. They’re out of Russia.”
Asked by a reporter what he told them, Biden responded, smiling, “I said, ‘Welcome, almost home.'”
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