President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed a complex prisoner-swap deal that freed wrongfully imprisoned Russians. The Wall Street Journal He sold journalist Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and two others in exchange for prisoners, including Russian assassin Vadim Krasikov, in a stunning “diplomatic feat.”
Biden said all four of the recovered prisoners were “convicted in a show trial” by Russia “for no justification.”
In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the released detainees included Russian-American journalist Ars Kurmaseva and U.S. green card holder The Washington Post The contributor was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Evan Gershkovich, Ars Kurmaseva, and Paul Whelan are released from Russia in a prisoner exchange on August 1, 2024. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Government)
Kurma Sheva is arrested She died in 2023 while visiting her sick mother in the Republic of Tatarstan. She was convicted in a hastily convened secret trial in July and sentenced to 16 years in prison on trumped-up charges of espionage.
Biden said he had spoken by phone to families of the released detainees shortly before making the statement from the White House.
“They have left Russia,” he said. “Earlier today, they flew to Turkey and will soon be boarding a plane to fly home to be with their families. This is an incredible relief for all the families gathered here. It’s also a relief for their friends and colleagues across the country. We’ve been praying for this day for a long time.”
“The agreement that made this possible is a feat of diplomacy and friendship,” he said. “Several countries helped make this happen. They participated in difficult and complex negotiations at my request. I personally thank them all again.”
According to ABC News: report A particularly difficult part of these “complex negotiations” was convincing Germany to release Krasikov, he said Thursday. Serving He was given a life sentence in Germany in 2019 for the murder of Georgian national Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili.
A German court found that Krasikov carried out the killings on the orders of the Russian government, which provided him with false identities, false documents and other information.
This incident A major diplomatic rift Between Russia and Germany, Russia said carrying out political executions on German territory was a “serious violation of German law and sovereignty.”
For many years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been in power. Claimed Krasikov would have to take part in any prisoner swap deals, including one that is rumoured might have freed dissident Alexei Navalny before he was killed under mysterious circumstances in a Russian penal colony in February 2024.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and U.S. President Joe Biden shake hands during a meeting at “Villa La Grange” in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. (AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File)
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday morning that securing Krasikoff’s release “required extensive diplomatic engagement with the German side at the highest levels, including the president himself, who addressed this issue directly with Chancellor Schultz.”
“We deeply appreciate our partnership with Germany,” Sullivan said, a sentiment echoed later by Biden in a statement.
Biden also thanked Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey for “making the bold and courageous decision to release prisoners lawfully held in their countries and for providing the logistical support to bring Americans home.”
“Russia has released a total of 16 prisoners. Eight Russians who were being held in Western countries will also be returning home,” Biden said Wednesday afternoon. “The 16 prisoners that Russia is releasing include four Americans, five Germans, and seven Russian nationals who were political prisoners in their own country.”
Biden said one of the freed Russian nationals was a human rights activist jailed by Putin for “speaking out against the war in Ukraine,” while the other four “had worked with Alexei Navalny.”
“It says a lot about the United States that we work relentlessly to free Americans wrongfully detained around the world, but it also says a lot about us that this agreement includes the release of Russian political prisoners,” Biden said, adding, “They stood up for democracy and human rights. Their own leaders sent them to prison. The United States also helped secure their release.”
“That’s who we are in America. We stand for freedom, liberty and justice — not just for our own people, but for others as well,” he said.
Biden loaded his statement with sharp partisan overtones, claiming that even before he took office, he had been working on a crackdown on Russian prisoners “inherited from the previous administration,” referring to former President Donald Trump’s administration.
“I wanted to be ready to act quickly, and I did,” he boasted. “To date, my administration has brought home more than 70 Americans who were wrongfully detained and held hostage overseas, many of them before I took office.”
CBS News report Russia will take in three prisoners being held in the US – two from Slovenia, one from Poland and one from Norway. Unlike Putin’s hostages, all of these prisoners have been formally convicted of actual crimes and “all have known or suspected ties to Russian intelligence.”
The three Russians released from US prisons are Vadim Konoshenok, Vladislav Klyushin and Roman Seleznyov.
Konoshenok was tried in a US court. Delivered He is due to be arrested by Estonia in July 2023 on charges of running a money laundering network that helped the Russian government evade international sanctions and helping Russia obtain sensitive American-made electronic equipment and munitions to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.
“This defendant, with alleged ties to the FSB, used shell companies to conceal his criminal enterprise and smuggled hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons to support Moscow’s military forces,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said at the time of Konoshenk’s indictment.
Vladislav Klyushin was Sentenced In September 2023, a federal court in Boston sentenced Krysin to up to nine years in prison for a $93 million stock market cybercrime scheme. Krysin and his co-conspirators stole confidential information from hundreds of U.S. companies, including major companies such as Tesla and Roku, and conducted illegal securities transactions.
Prosecutors said Klyushin serving his full sentence would send “a vital message to criminals around the world that their location does not guarantee anonymity and that the reach of U.S. law enforcement is broad.”
“The FBI will not stand by and watch as criminals like him use intrusive cyber attacks to interfere with financial markets,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Jody Cohen.
Roman Seleznev was also a cybercriminal. Sentenced In November 2017, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for running a large-scale criminal enterprise that stole the identities of Americans and used them to commit $50 million worth of credit card fraud, bank fraud, and other crimes.
Seleznev sold stolen personal information so widely that he had to set up an automated website to keep up with the growing demand from thieves and scammers. His customers had a sophisticated shopping interface where they could search for the exact stolen credit card details they wanted, purchase them in a secure online shopping cart, and download their stolen goods instantly once payment was complete.
Seleznev also admitted to helping other cybercriminals launder millions of dollars worth of stolen goods. It took a joint effort by the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security to take down his cybercrime ring.
Richard Grenell, who served as President Trump’s acting director of national intelligence in 2020, Came back Biden launched a political attack on Thursday, expressing concern that the unfair prisoner swap that freed Krasikov and other dangerous Russian operatives in exchange for innocent hostages may not be something to celebrate.
“Putin has just learned that if there is an exchange partner, the West will send terrorists back to Russia after they kill their enemies,” Grenell said.
“Putin is very happy with the Biden-Harris administration. Putin just received a big gift from Germany. And yet Putin continues to wage war in Europe. We are less safe,” he warned.
