Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan as part of a major prisoner swap with the United States, according to 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 sources added.
The Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) said it would coordinate an extensive prisoner swap involving 26 people from seven countries, including Russia, Belarus, the US, Germany, Slovenia and two others.
“A [prisoner] exchange operation will take place [on Thursday] under the coordination of our organisation,” MIT said in a statement. “Our organisation has undertaken a major mediation role in this exchange operation, which is the most comprehensive of the recent period.”
Further details of the exchange were not immediately available. The US has been in talks for years to achieve the release of Mr Gershkovich and Mr Whelan, whom the State Department has designated as wrongly detained.
Mr Gershkovich (32) was arrested in March of 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, the first time since the Cold War that Russia had put a US reporter on trial for espionage.
Mr Whelan, who was detained in 2018, was sentenced to 16 years in 2020 on spying charges he denied. – Bloomberg, with additional reporting by Reuters