NEWS. . . BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A U. S. journalist, a former Marine and a Russian-American journalist were photographed after being released in a prisoner swap that brought one of Vladimir Putin’s main enemies out of prison.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U. S. Marine Paul Whelan and radio reporter Alsou Kurmasheva held an American flag and smiled and appeared to be in good spirits in the photograph released Thursday.
The three men were due to arrive in the United States overnight and were part of a 24-person prisoner exchange, one of the largest since the end of the Cold War. The exchange involved the United States, Russia, Germany and three other Western countries.
One of Putin’s biggest enemies, a Russian-British citizen, has been released from a penal colony in Siberia as a result of a major exchange of political prisoners between Russia and the West.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was part of Russia’s embattled opposition, had been in prison since April 2022 and suffered two near-fatal poisoning attempts in the years leading up to his arrest.
“Everyone has endured suffering and uncertainty,” said US President Joe Biden. “Today his agony is over. “
Biden, at the White House, stood alongside the families of Gershkovich, Kurmasheva, Whelan and Kara-Murza as they spoke with their families on the phone.
“These families have never lost hope,” Biden wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “And today you will locate the missing part of your soul. “
Biden, in his speech, sang “Happy Birthday” to Kurmasheva’s daughter, Miriam Butorin, who turns thirteen tomorrow.
“Now he can celebrate with his mother. That’s what it’s all about, families that can be together again, but they’ve been together the whole time,” he said.
“Thank you again to everyone who did your part. In just a few hours, welcome home, our fellow Americans. We hope to do so, God willing, thank you. And it’s a smart day.
Biden also thanked United States allies for the “bold and courageous decisions” that led to the prisoners’ release.
The exchange “would not have been imaginable without our allies, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey, all of whom stepped up and supported us,” Biden said.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had to wait to reach U. S. soil at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
Kara-Murza, who is a lawful permanent resident in the United States, will meet with Biden and then travel to Germany to reunite with his family, according to United States national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
“We look forward to his return soon here in the United States,” Sullivan said.
Biden, in another post by X featuring the organization on a plane, wrote, “After enduring suffering and uncertainty, Americans detained in Russia are safe, free, and have begun their adventure at home with their families. “
German citizen and Red Cross worker Rico Krieger and Russian opposition leader Ilya Yashin are also included in the exchange.
Putin signed a decree pardoning prisoners “with the aim of returning Russian citizens detained and imprisoned in foreign countries,” the Kremlin said, adding that he “thanks the leaders of all countries who provided help in preparing for the exchange “.
Turkish television channel NTV reported that a prisoner exchange took place at Ankara airport.
Signs of an agreement between Russia and Belarus, on the one hand, and the United States, Germany and Slovenia, on the other, have multiplied after the disappearance of several foreign prisoners.
Flightradar24 flight tracking showed that a special Russian government plane used in a previous prisoner exchange, involving the United States and Russia, flew from Moscow to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland and Lithuania, before returning to the Russian capital.
Pervy Otdel, an organization specializing in the defense of others involved in Russian treason and espionage cases, believes that this leak could simply mean that an exchange took place at the Polish border.
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian human rights lawyer and founder of Pervy Otdel, said the disappearance of so many other profiled people indicated that the government was bringing them together, most likely in Moscow, for an exchange.
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about reports of an imminent primary prisoner exchange, said: “I do not comment on this yet. “
The White House has engaged in extensive negotiations to secure the release of Gershkovich and Whelan.
It is unclear whether Britain has also been involved in the ongoing negotiations over Kara-Murza.
Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum-security prison for treason and “discrediting the army,” the longest sentence ever imposed on a Kremlin critic.
A protégé of Boris Nemtsov, Putin’s assassinated rival, he is vice president of the Open Russia movement, a political organization founded by businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which promotes civil society and democracy in the country.
He came to the Kremlin’s attention after producing a seminal documentary about the fall of the USSR, which highlighted how Putin became president despite having been an unwavering officer in the KGB’s oppressive spy forces.
His platform grew as he wrote a series of books, blog posts and articles highlighting the repression of dissidents in Russia.
Her spouse Evgenia spoke to Metro. co. uk last year about ongoing efforts to lose her husband.
He said “publicity is his only weapon” against Putin’s regime, adding that he went ahead with “fury and indignation. “
Kara-Murza has no intention of remaining silent now that he has been released.
“It’s not going to stop,” William Browder, who leads the Magnitsky Global Campaign for Justice, said on MSNBC.
“Let him go to Latin America and get the Latin American countries to pass the Magnitsky legislation so they can freeze the assets of the Putin regime and other Russian criminals. “
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