WASHINGTON: The US and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan in a multinational deal that set some two dozen people free, according to officials in Turkey, where the exchange took place.
But the release of Americans has come at a price: Russia has secured the freedom of its own nationals convicted of serious crimes in the West by trading them for journalists and other Westerners.