3 Americans are back home after a historic prisoner swap. Readjusting to their normal lives could mean challenges ahead

There were plenty of hugs to go around the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where three Americans formerly detained in Russia shared emotional reunions with their families.

There were plenty of hugs to go around the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where three Americans formerly detained in Russia shared emotional reunions with their families. Late Thursday marked the first time they embraced their loved ones – in many months in two cases and several years in another – since the three were released from Russian detention as part of a historic prisoner exchange. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva were welcomed back warmly at the military facility by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their relatives. Gershkovich, 32, who was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting assignment, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage last month by a Russian court, CNN previously reported. Whelan, 54, who spent nearly six years imprisoned in Russia following his December 2018 arrest in Moscow while in Russia for a friend’s wedding, received a 16-year prison sentence in 2020 on espionage charges. The US State Department designated both Whelan and Gershkovich as wrongfully detained. Kurmasheva was handed a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence last month during a closed-door hearing in Russia the same day Gershkovich was sentenced.