WASHINGTON: United States journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Pa
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who faces charges of espionage, stands inside an enclosure for defendants as he attends a court hearing in Yekaterinburg, Russia , on Jul 19, 2024. are expected to be released by Russia as part of one of the biggest East-West prisoner swaps since the Cold War, according to US media on Thursday .
Signs of an imminent prisoner swap had picked up momentum on Thursday, amid reports a plane used in a previous exchange deal had landed in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. This would be the first prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since star US basketball player Brittney Griner was swapped in return for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.
Before then, major swaps involving more than a dozen people had only taken place during the Cold War, with Soviet and Western powers carrying out exchanges in 1985 and 1986. Gershkovich was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip. He, his employer and the US government all strongly denied the espionage allegations against him.
Whelan was working in security for a US vehicle parts company when he was arrested in Moscow in 2018 and has always asserted that the evidence against him was falsified.Also among those who disappeared was journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old joint Russian and British citizen. His lawyers said on Wednesday that they did not know his location after being twice denied access to the facility where he was meant to be held.
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