Russia releases journalist Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan as part of prisoner exchange

Over the past 24 hours, several media outlets said that the United States and Russia were going to conduct a large-scale exchange of prisoners. A special flight of the "Russia" squadron is currently flying from Moscow to Ankara, whereas a US military aircraft is flying from Germany to Turkey.

According to data from the Flightradar24 service, a Tu-204-300 with tail number RA-64059 (flight number RSD939) of the special flight squadron "Russia", which is used by the Presidential Property Management Department, flew from Moscow to Ankara.

In addition, a military transport aircraft C-130J-30 Super Hercules (flight HKY767) is currently flying from the Ramstein military base in Germany towards Turkey.

Earlier today, Fox News reported that The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was convicted in Russia in the espionage case, could be released as part of an exchange within 24 hours.

According to most recent reports, Russia has released journalist Evan Gershkovich.

The Russian and US authorities were conducting a "difficult dialogue" on the exchange of prisoners, President Vladimir Putin said last December. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, he said that Russia could exchange Gershkovich "with a counter move from the partners."

Russia and USA conduct large exchange of prisoners

Russia may also exchange another American citizen, Paul Whelan, who was detained in Moscow in 2018 on charges of collecting intelligence and recruiting employees of the Russian Ministry of Defense. In the summer of 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He is serving his sentence in a maximum security penal colony in the Republic of Mordovia.

A few days ago, lawyers for several prisoners in Russia said that they lost contact with their clients. The lawyers assumed that they were being prepared for a group exchange. It goes about the following people:

•  Ilya Yashin (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia; former head of the Krasnoselsky municipal district in Moscow, associate of Boris Nemtsov and Alexei Navalny (included in the list of terrorists and extremists));
• opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia),
• Lilia Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeeva (former heads of Navalny's Headquarters (an organization recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation, liquidated and banned); both are included in the list of terrorists and extremists)),
• human rights activist Oleg Orlov (recognized as a foreign agent in Russia),
• artist Alexandra Skolichenko.

In the United States, information related to several Russian citizens has disappeared from the Federal Bureau of Prisons database: Alexander Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenko and Vladislav Klyushin.

• Alexander Vinnik is a Russian IT specialist and entrepreneur who was arrested in Greece in 2017 at the request of the United States on charges of laundering four billion dollars. 
• Maxim Marchenko was also arrested on charges of money laundering and sentenced to three years in prison in July of this year. 
• Vadim Konoshchenko was extradited to the United States from Estonia in 2022, accused of collecting data on behalf of the FSB and smuggling dual-use technologies. 
• Vladislav Klyushin has been serving a sentence since 2023 on charges of cyber fraud.

In addition to them, Vladimir Dunayev and Roman Seleznev, accused of cyber fraud, were also named as candidates for exchange, but their data remained in the American prison system.