A prisoner swap was underway between the United States, Russia, and other countries on Thursday, according to a senior Biden administration official, NBC News reports.
The trade is a rare example of cooperation amid heightened political tensions between the U.S. and Russia, including from sanctions imposed on Russia and Russian officials over the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Relations between the two countries had been strained before the invasion, following Russian interference in the 2016 election and its annexation of Crimea.
The most high-profile known U.S. prisoners in Russia right now are Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. It is not confirmed if they are part of this swap.
Gershkovich, 32, detained in March 2023, was convicted by a Russian court earlier this year and sentenced to 16 years in prison in July.
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Whelan, 54, has been detained since 2018 when he went to Russia for a friend’s wedding. While visiting, he was also detained and convicted of espionage. He had been serving a 16-year sentence in a penal colony.
Among the most high-profile prisoner swaps in recent years was the Dec. 2022 exchange of WNBA star Brittney Griner for notorious Russian arms dealer, Victor Bout, a weapons trafficker known as the “Merchant of Death.”
NBC reported in February that the U.S. had been working on a potential prisoner exchange involving Russians and Americans that could have included imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny, as well as Whelan and Gershkovich. But those efforts halted after Navalny’s death was announced on Feb. 16.
