Gershkovich, Whelan and Kurmasheva arrive in US after prisoner swap
Al Jazeera
The three were greeted by friends and family, as well as US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva have arrived back in the United States after being freed as part of the biggest prisoner exchange with Russia since the Cold War.
The White House said the US had negotiated the swap with Russia, Germany and three other countries. The deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 26 people, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners, along with two children, in the other direction.
The US citizens’ plane landed late on Thursday at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, where they were greeted by cheers from family and friends who had gathered for their arrival, as well as US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden earlier said he owed a particular debt of gratitude to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made the politically difficult choice to release Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence for the murder of an exiled dissident in Berlin.
“Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world,” Biden said at the White House earlier, flanked by the relatives of the freed prisoners.
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