Footage from Russia’s security service shows US and German nationals boarding a plane before the exchange
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a fresh video showing the moments before the 16 people released by Moscow to the West were about to fly to Türkiye for the planned exchange.
Moscow and Washington have swapped a total of 26 prisoners in the biggest such exchange in the modern history. According to the FSB, eight Russian nationals held in the US, Germany, Norway, Poland and Slovenia, and two children returned in exchange for individuals who’d “acted in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation.”
Footage published by the FSB shows Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich being driven to an airport in a bus before boarding a plane together with a former US Marine, Paul Whelan, and a German national, Rico Krieger, as well as some other prisoners.
All the men are accompanied by masked Russian security officers. The clip ends with Gershkovich smiling while sitting on his seat in the cabin.
Gershkovich was arrested in March last year after being caught soliciting classified information about a major Russian state defense industry company. He was convicted of espionage in early July and sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security colony.
Whelan was arrested for espionage in 2018 and sentenced in 2020. Krieger was convicted on “mercenary activity” and “terrorism” charges by a Belarusian court for detonating an explosive charge on a rail line on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence. He was sentenced to death but pardoned by President Alexander Lukashenko.
Earlier, another video was released by the Russian authorities showing President Vladimir Putin personally greeting the returning Russian captives at Moscow’s Vnukovo-2 airport.
Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, FSB chief Aleksandar Bortnikov and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) head Sergey Naryshkin were also present during the welcoming ceremony. The list of people released by the West included a married couple as well as two of their underage children alongside with six other Russian nationals.
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