Whelan exited the plane first at Joint Base Andrew in Maryland, followed by Gershkovich and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who works for U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe. The trio exchanged handshakes and hugs with President Biden and Vice President Harris, and embraced their family members as onlookers cheered.
Among the Russians is Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian state assassin in German custody, as well as three other Russians in U.S. custody. The prisoner exchange was one of the largest between the United States, its allies, and Russia since the end of the Cold War.
Not since the Cold War has there been a similar number of individuals exchanged in this way, said U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan, adding the exchange was the culmination of many rounds of complex painstaking negotiations over many, many months.
Biden said the deal was a feat of diplomacy and thanked allies who worked with the United States on it. Sullivan said Biden would seek to build on the success to try to free Marc Fogel, a U.S. citizen still held in Russia, and other Americans held in Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
[
Collection
]
[
|
...
]