Towards a Mega Prisoner Swap Between Russia and the West: “Free Gershkovich, WSJ Reporter”
A prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington. The disappearance in recent days of some of the most well-known Russian political prisoners would fall into this context. Among them Ewan GershkovichAmerican journalist of the Wall Street Journal sentenced in Russia to 16 years in prison for espionage: according to his newspaper, he will return to the United States today as part of negotiations for the release of some prisoners.
A Russian plane already used in prisoner exchanges between Russia and the United States since 2022 took off from Kaliningrad a short while ago, according to data from the Flightradar24 portal cited by the Russian agency Tass. It would be the confirmation of the effective new mega-exchange of prisoners between the two countries.
They seem to be pointing in this direction, he reports Daily fact, also the pardon that the Belarusian dictator Lukashenko granted yesterday to a German citizen sentenced to death and the sentences – considered to be obviously politically motivated – inflicted in recent days in an unusually rapid time on Gershkovich and the Russian-American reporter Alsu Kurmasheva (a conviction is required to grant pardon). Furthermore, Putin has made it clear that he wants the release of Vadim Krasikoff: an alleged former Russian agent accused of killing a former Chechen commander in Berlin. There are at least 8 Russian citizens considered political prisoners of the Putin regime whose exact whereabouts are unknown. And to them is added the American citizen Paul Whelansentenced to 16 years on espionage charges. His lawyer yesterday said she “does not know where he is” and that she has asked Russian authorities whether her client is in the penal colony in Mordovia, where he has been held until now. Among the Russian political prisoners, the latest to disappear is Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of the most well-known faces of the opposition: sentenced to 25 years for opposing the war in Ukraine, according to what was told to Reuters by Moscow, he was transferred from the IK-6 penal colony in Omsk “to another destination” that was not specified.
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