Imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich will be freed from a Russian prison Thursday as part of a prisoner swap with Moscow, according to reports.
Gershkovich will return to the US after spending 16 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison alongside serial killers and other political prisoners, sources told Bloomberg News.
A senior Biden administration also told ABC News that Gershkovich will be released alongside former US Marine Paul Whelan in the extraordinary deal.
Gershkovich and Whelan are expected to be released as part of the largest multi-country prisoner exchange since the Cold War, Good Morning America said.
The US and four NATO allies are reportedly swapping a total of 24 prisoners with Russia, the outlet explained.
Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, Jr., a prominent critic of the Kremlin, are also expected to be released as part of the deal, according to Good Morning America.
Gershkovich, 32, has been jailed in Russia since March 2023, when he was arrested and baselessly accused of spying for the CIA. He had been reporting in Russia on assignment for the Journal at the time.
In mid-July, he was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison following a trial that involved no outside evidence.
Speculation had been swirling in recent days that a massive US-Russia prisoner swap could be imminent, as a number of prominent inmates held in Russia were moved from their cells to unknown locations, according to the Moscow Times.
At the same time, information about some Russian prisoners held in the US vanished from the Federal Bureau of Inmates database, heightening speculation of a prisoner deal.
The last major exchange with Russia happened in December 2022, when American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner was released in return for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
She had spent just under a year in Russian prison for having trace amounts of cannabis oil in her bags as she traveled through the country.
Bout — known as the “Merchant of Death” — had served ten years behind bars after being convicted of conspiring to kill Americans and aiding a terrorist entity.
Former US Marine Paul Whelan was visiting Russia for a friend’s wedding when he was arrested for espionage. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, 54, repeatedly expressed his frustration with the US government for not securing his release – and even accused President Joe Biden of “serious betrayal.”
“It’s five years. It’s unfathomable to me that they’ve left me behind,” Whelan told the BBC by phone from a labor camp.
“They’ve basically abandoned me here.”
