Russia released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a prisoner swap on Thursday, the White House said. 

The exchange is one of the biggest East-West prisoner swaps since the Cold War.

"Today, three American citizens and one American green card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza," US President Joe Biden said in a statement. 

"The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy."

What we know about the swap

Read the latest updates on the prisoner swaps here. 

The men, jailed in Russia on spying charges that both they and the US deny, were said to be on their way to destinations outside Russia.

A Russian government plane was reported to have landed in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday. That came shortly after the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said it was coordinating an extensive prisoner swap.

The US has been in extensive talks to achieve the release of Gershkovich and Whelan, who were designated as wrongly detained by the State Department.

Moscow also released dual Russian-UK dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza as part of the agreement.

Under the deal, the US and its allies are understood to be due to return prisoners to Russia. However, it was initially unclear which individuals would be heading in that direction.

Who are some of those being freed?

Reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested last year in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg while on assignment. He was accused of spying for the CIA. He and the WSJ have denied the accusations. 

Whelan, who holds US, British, Irish, and Canadian citizenship, was arrested in Moscow in 2018 on charges of spying due to his work connections within the US intelligence community. These charges have been vehemently denied by both Whelan and Washington.

He was convicted in 2020 and given a 16-year prison sentence.

Kara-Murza, 42, has persistently criticized President Vladimir Putin’s rule. He was handed a record 25-year prison sentence in April last year on treason and other charges over his criticism of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Days of speculation

Rumors of the swap came on the heels of reports on Tuesday that Whelan and Kara-Murza had been moved from their usual locations in Russian prisons. 

Their lawyers said they had been unable to find their clients amidst simultaneous reports of Russian government planes moving in and out of different prisons over several days.

At the same time, Russian news agency RIA reported that four Russians jailed in the United States had been removed from official prison databases. One of those people was Alexander Vinnik, an alleged Russian cybercrime kingpin.

This is the second high-profile prisoner swap in as many years between the US and Russia, following the release of basketball star Britney Griner in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout.

es,rc/wmr (AFP, Reuters)