Prisoners exchanged in Türkiye-led operation include journalist, mercenary

By Anadolu Staff

The identities of the individuals involved in a large-scale prisoner exchange orchestrated by Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) on Thursday have sparked significant intrigue.

The operation, one of the most extensive in recent history, involved 26 detainees held in various prisons across the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus.

Among the prominent figures in the exchange were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, German mercenary Rico Krieger, Russian opposition activist Ilya Yashin and Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Vadim Krasikov.

- Evan Gershkovich

Evan Gershkovich, born in 1991 to a Jewish family that emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States, grew up speaking Russian. In 2022, he joined The Wall Street Journal's Moscow bureau as a reporter. In March 2023, Gershkovich was detained in Yekaterinburg, around 1,416 kilometers (880 miles) east of Moscow, on suspicion of espionage. He is accused of spying for the US government, with the FSB alleging he was gathering classified information on a Russian tank factory. Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal and US officials denied the charges, with US President Joe Biden demanding his release. Gershkovich was convicted in July and sentenced to 16 years in prison, marking the first time a US journalist has been convicted of espionage in Russia since the Cold War.

- Paul Whelan

Paul Whelan, a former US Marine with citizenship in Canada, the US, the UK and Ireland, was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 on espionage charges. In June 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, a verdict he and US officials have consistently contested. Biden earlier highlighted long-lasting efforts to facilitate the release of Whelan, the longest-held prisoner in the swap.

Whelan was accused of possessing a flash drive containing sensitive Russian data when he was arrested at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. He claimed the drive, given to him by a Russian acquaintance, contained only holiday photos.

- Ilya Yashin

Ilya Yashin, a known Russian opposition figure, faced numerous short-term imprisonments for his activism. In 2022, he was labeled a foreign agent for receiving funds from abroad and sentenced to 8.5 years for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian military online. He was also associated with the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

- Rico Krieger

German national Rico Krieger, born in 1993, admitted to conducting sabotage in Belarus on Ukrainian intelligence orders. Convicted of terrorism and espionage, he was sentenced to death on June 24, but Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko recently pardoned him. Krieger formerly worked for Pond Security, which provided services to US facilities in Germany.

- Vadim Krasikov

Vadim Krasikov, reportedly an FSB officer, was serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili. He had been imprisoned since December 2021. Russian President Vladimir Putin described Khangoshvili as a separatist with connections to Chechnya.

*Writing by Yasin Gungor in Istanbul