US journalist Evan Gershkovich to be freed by Russia in prisoner swap, say sources

The men, jailed in Russia on espionage charges they and the US deny, are en route to destinations outside of Russia. The US and its allies will return prisoners to Russia that they hold under the deal, the people said, asking for anonymity to discuss matters that aren’t yet public.

The Kremlin is also releasing dissident, Vladimir Kara-Murza, as part of the agreement, a European official said on condition of anonymity. An activist with dual Russian-British citizenship, Kara-Murza (42) has been a persistent campaigner against President Vladimir Putin’s rule and was given a record 25-year prison sentence in April last year on treason and other charges for criticising Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Further details of the exchange weren’t immediately available. The US has been in extensive talks to achieve the release of Gershkovich and Whelan, who were designated as wrongly detained by the State Department.

US citizen Paul Whelan on 17 September 2019. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Sergei Ilnitsky)

Gershkovich (32) was arrested in March last year while on a reporting assignment in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the CIA. He and the newspaper rejected the accusations.

He was convicted last month and sentenced to 16 years, the first time since the Cold War that Russia had put a US reporter on trial for espionage.

Whelan, who was detained in 2018, was sentenced to 16 years in 2020 on spying charges he denied. Bloomberg/DM

(An earlier version of this story was corrected by Bloomberg to reflect that the Americans have not been released yet)

This is a developing story and will be updated.