Zürcher Nachrichten - Russia frees US reporter in major prisoner swap with West: Turkey

EUR -
AED 4.104397
AFN 76.945413
ALL 99.231189
AMD 432.617988
ANG 2.010719
AOA 1036.724537
ARS 1074.129077
AUD 1.641361
AWG 2.011389
AZN 1.904081
BAM 1.955429
BBD 2.252673
BDT 133.324726
BGN 1.955429
BHD 0.42042
BIF 3234.286875
BMD 1.117438
BND 1.441627
BOB 7.709539
BRL 6.162788
BSD 1.115688
BTN 93.249023
BWP 14.748204
BYN 3.651208
BYR 21901.788071
BZD 2.248874
CAD 1.517202
CDF 3208.165381
CHF 0.949812
CLF 0.037598
CLP 1037.433333
CNY 7.880067
CNH 7.870123
COP 4641.820049
CRC 578.89026
CUC 1.117438
CUP 29.612111
CVE 110.244101
CZK 25.088056
DJF 198.672338
DKK 7.466767
DOP 66.967305
DZD 147.657009
EGP 54.142736
ERN 16.761573
ETB 129.466357
FJD 2.459262
FKP 0.850995
GBP 0.83876
GEL 3.051043
GGP 0.850995
GHS 17.539675
GIP 0.850995
GMD 76.548818
GNF 9639.172699
GTQ 8.624365
GYD 233.395755
HKD 8.704949
HNL 27.675753
HRK 7.597474
HTG 147.212093
HUF 393.517458
IDR 16941.25656
ILS 4.221139
IMP 0.850995
INR 93.284241
IQD 1461.522939
IRR 47035.770303
ISK 152.262556
JEP 0.850995
JMD 175.286771
JOD 0.791709
JPY 160.803866
KES 143.922717
KGS 94.13132
KHR 4531.14103
KMF 493.181764
KPW 1005.693717
KRW 1488.975611
KWD 0.340897
KYD 0.929724
KZT 534.908597
LAK 24636.329683
LBP 99909.860054
LKR 340.395471
LRD 223.1377
LSL 19.586187
LTL 3.299505
LVL 0.675928
LYD 5.297996
MAD 10.818149
MDL 19.468309
MGA 5046.04342
MKD 61.603322
MMK 3629.395577
MNT 3797.054841
MOP 8.955702
MRU 44.337595
MUR 51.268486
MVR 17.164273
MWK 1934.433289
MXN 21.697078
MYR 4.698871
MZN 71.348848
NAD 19.586187
NGN 1831.984424
NIO 41.062216
NOK 11.713438
NPR 149.198716
NZD 1.791484
OMR 0.429669
PAB 1.115688
PEN 4.181807
PGK 4.367172
PHP 62.188829
PKR 309.994034
PLN 4.274593
PYG 8704.349913
QAR 4.067529
RON 4.972492
RSD 117.064808
RUB 103.380402
RWF 1504.014883
SAR 4.193134
SBD 9.282489
SCR 14.578236
SDG 672.143165
SEK 11.364797
SGD 1.442952
SHP 0.850995
SLE 25.530448
SLL 23432.113894
SOS 637.579134
SRD 33.752262
STD 23128.713955
SVC 9.762149
SYP 2807.596846
SZL 19.593286
THB 36.793929
TJS 11.859752
TMT 3.911034
TND 3.380559
TOP 2.617156
TRY 38.132438
TTD 7.588561
TWD 35.736832
TZS 3045.822602
UAH 46.114158
UGX 4133.216465
USD 1.117438
UYU 46.101261
UZS 14197.308611
VEF 4047978.463464
VES 41.096875
VND 27494.566096
VUV 132.664504
WST 3.125992
XAF 655.832674
XAG 0.035881
XAU 0.000426
XCD 3.019933
XDR 0.826843
XOF 655.832674
XPF 119.331742
YER 279.722751
ZAR 19.426272
ZMK 10058.288435
ZMW 29.537401
ZWL 359.814634
  • BCE

    -0.1500

    35.04

    -0.43%

  • RELX

    -0.1400

    47.99

    -0.29%

  • SCS

    -0.3900

    12.92

    -3.02%

  • RBGPF

    58.8300

    58.83

    +100%

  • NGG

    0.7200

    69.55

    +1.04%

  • GSK

    -0.8200

    40.8

    -2.01%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    25.15

    +0.12%

  • AZN

    -0.5200

    78.38

    -0.66%

  • RIO

    -1.6100

    63.57

    -2.53%

  • JRI

    -0.0800

    13.32

    -0.6%

  • CMSD

    0.0100

    25.02

    +0.04%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    6.97

    +0.29%

  • VOD

    -0.0500

    10.01

    -0.5%

  • BTI

    -0.1300

    37.44

    -0.35%

  • BP

    -0.1200

    32.64

    -0.37%

  • BCC

    -7.1900

    137.5

    -5.23%

Russia frees US reporter in major prisoner swap with West: Turkey
Russia frees US reporter in major prisoner swap with West: Turkey / Photo: Natalia KOLESNIKOVA - AFP/File

Russia frees US reporter in major prisoner swap with West: Turkey

US journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan were released Thursday, the Turkish government announced, in one of the biggest East-West prisoner swaps since the Cold War.

Text size:

Prisoners from the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and Russia were involved in the swap "carried out" by Turkey's MIT intelligence service, Turkey's presidency said.

There was no immediate confirmation from US officials, although the swap was widely reported by US television networks. The Kremlin declined to comment on any exchange.

Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich, 32, was detained in March 2023 and convicted in July on spying charges in a fast-track trial denounced as a sham by the United States.

Signs of an imminent prisoner swap had picked up momentum earlier Thursday, amid reports a plane used in a previous exchange deal had landed in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Hopes had also risen in recent days after a number of high-profile prisoners in Russia, including Whelan, went missing from prisons where they were serving long terms, fueling speculation they were being moved ahead of a swap.

As a rule, swaps can only happen after a conviction in Russia, and the disappearance of several high-profile political prisoners at once is extremely rare.

Among those expected to be returned to Russia in exchange is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen imprisoned in Germany for killing a former Chechen rebel commander in a brazen assassination.

The exchange would be a victory for President Joe Biden, whose vice president, Kamala Harris, faces Republican Donald Trump in the November election.

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.

It would also be the biggest exchange since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged between Russia and the West. They included double agent Sergei Skripal, who was sent by Moscow to Britain and undercover Russian agent Anna Chapman, sent by Washington to Russia.

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.

- 'Pushing hard' -

An aircraft already used in Griner and Bout's exchange flew from Moscow to Kaliningrad on Thursday morning, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24. The flight was later tracked taking off from Kaliningrad two hours later.

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.

Biden had said after the sentencing that he was "pushing hard for Evan's release and will continue to do so."

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders said it was "hugely relieved."

"The Russian government's continued policy of state hostage-taking is outrageous. Journalists are not spies, and they must never be targeted for political purposes," the group said.

Washington has also been working for the release of jailed former Marine Whelan, 54, who was arrested in 2018 in Moscow and charged with espionage.

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.

Kara-Murza, who spoke out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and other charges. He suffers from a nerve disease and was moved to a prison hospital earlier this month for medical checks.

Adding to the intrigue was a case in Slovenia, where a court sentenced two Russians suspected of spying for Moscow to more than a year and a half in prison -- but then ordered their expulsion from the country.

Arrests of US citizens in Russia have increased in recent years, in what Washington sees as a Kremlin attempt to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.

burs-sms/nro

G.Kuhn--NZN