Full Record Of Individuals Who Have been Freed As Half Of Mega Prisoner Swap Between Russia And The US, West

One spent over 5½ years behind bars in Russia whereas different, higher-profile detainees have been launched forward of him. One other was jailed for only some months. They embody journalists, veteran political activists and people merely against the battle in Ukraine. The youngest is nineteen, the oldest 71.

Among the many Russians jailed within the West have been alleged sleeper brokers who lived double lives. Others have been convicted of hacking computer systems. One was imprisoned for the brazen, daytime taking pictures dying of a person in a Berlin park.

On Thursday, they walked free – a part of the biggest East-West civilian prisoner swap for the reason that Chilly Warfare:

Launched by Russia and Belarus

1. EVAN GERSHKOVICH, a Wall Avenue Journal reporter, was detained within the Russian metropolis of Yekaterinburg in March 2023. With out offering proof, authorities accused him of “gathering secret info” on the CIA’s behest a few army tools manufacturing facility — an allegation that Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. authorities vehemently denied. Jailed since then, a court docket convicted Gershkovich, 32, of espionage in July after a closed trial and sentenced him to 16 years in jail.
2. PAUL WHELAN, a company safety government from Michigan, was arrested in 2018 in Moscow, the place he was attending a pal’s marriage ceremony. He was accused of espionage, convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in jail. Whelan, 54, has rejected the costs as fabricated.
3. ALSU KURMASHEVA, a twin U.S.-Russian nationwide, was arrested in 2023 in her hometown of Kazan, the place she was visiting her ailing mom. The Prague-based editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service was accused of not self-reporting as a “international agent” and was convicted in July of spreading false details about the Russian army — expenses rejected by her household and employer. Kurmasheva, 47, was sentenced to 6½ years in jail.
4. VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, a twin Russian-U.Okay. citizen and outstanding opposition politician, was arrested in 2022, after criticizing the battle in Ukraine that had begun weeks earlier. He was convicted in 2023 of treason and different expenses and sentenced to 25 years in jail in a case he calls politically motivated. A columnist for The Washington Publish, Kara-Murza, 42, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize this yr. He fell in poor health in 2015 and 2017 from two near-fatal poisonings he blames on the Kremlin. His spouse and attorneys say his well being is deteriorating in jail because of the poisonings.
5. ILYA YASHIN is a outstanding Kremlin critic who was serving an 8 1/2-year sentence for criticizing Russia’s battle in Ukraine. Yashin, a former member of a Moscow municipal council, was one of many few well-known opposition activists to remain in Russia for the reason that battle.
6. ANDREI PIVOVAROV, 42, headed the opposition group Open Russia, which authorities outlawed in 2021. He was pulled off a flight and arrested that very same yr. In 2022, he was convicted of finishing up actions of an “undesirable” group and sentenced to 4 years in jail.
7. OLEG ORLOV, a veteran human rights campaigner, was convicted of discrediting the Russian army and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail in February for his protests of the battle in Ukraine. Orlov, 71, is co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial.
8. SASHA SKOCHILENKO, 33, was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail in November 2023 for changing a number of value tags in a grocery store with anti-war slogans.
9. KSENIA FADEYEVA, LILIA CHANYSHEVA and VADIM OSTANIN are former coordinators of regional workplaces of the late opposition determine Alexei Navalny. They have been arrested after Navalny’s political community was outlawed in 2021 and later convicted of extremism. Fadeyeva, 32, and Ostanin, 47, have been sentenced to 9 years in jail every, and Chanysheva, 42, bought a 9 1/2-year time period.
10. KEVIN LIK, 19, a twin Russian-German nationwide, was arrested in southern Russia in February 2023 and accused of taking footage of a army unit and sending the photographs to a “consultant of a international state.” Courtroom officers stated he was against the battle in Ukraine. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to 4 years in jail, with rights advocates saying Lik, who was 17 on the time of his arrest, was the youngest individual convicted of that crime.
11. RICO KRIEGER, a German medical employee, was convicted in Belarus of terrorism expenses in June, and sentenced to dying. He was pardoned Tuesday by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
12. DEMURI VORONIN, a twin Russian-German nationwide, is a political scientist who ran a consultancy that reportedly collaborated with journalists. He was arrested in 2021, convicted of treason in 2023 and sentenced to 13 years and three months in jail. He was implicated within the treason trial of Ivan Safronov, who allegedly handed him details about Russian army actions, which Voronin allegedly then gave to German intelligence.
13. PATRICK SCHOEBEL, a German nationwide, was arrested in February 2024 at Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg when gummies containing a psychoactive part of hashish have been allegedly present in his possession. He has been detained since then, going through drug-smuggling expenses.
14. GERMAN MOYZHES, a twin Russian-German nationwide, is a migration lawyer who helped Russians apply for European Union residence permits. He was arrested in Might in St. Petersburg and reportedly accused of treason, however little else is thought about his case.

Launched by the West

1. VADIM KRASIKOV was convicted in 2021 of taking pictures to dying Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity, in a Berlin park. The German judges concluded it was an assassination ordered by the Russian safety providers. Krasikov, 58, was sentenced to life imprisonment. President Vladimir Putin this yr hinted at a potential swap for Krasikov.
2. PAVEL RUBTSOV was arrested in Poland on espionage expenses. He’s one in every of numerous folks detained there on allegations of spying for Russia for the reason that invasion of Ukraine.
3. ROMAN SELEZNEV, the son of a Russian lawmaker, was convicted within the U.S. in 2017 of hacking into greater than 500 companies and stealing hundreds of thousands of bank card numbers, which he then bought on web sites. Seleznev, a Russian citizen, was sentenced to 27 years in jail and ordered to pay almost $170 million in restitution to his victims.
4. VLADISLAV KLYUSHIN, a rich businessman with ties to the Kremlin, was convicted in Boston in 2023 of expenses together with wire fraud and securities fraud in an almost $100 million scheme that relied on secret earnings info stolen through hacking U.S. pc networks. Klyushin, 43, who was stated to have personally pocketed $33 million within the scheme, was sentenced to 9 years in jail. He was arrested in Switzerland and extradited to the U.S. in 2021.
5. VADIM KONOSHCHENOK, a suspected officer in Russia’s Federal Safety Service, was extradited to the USA from Estonia final yr to face expenses he smuggled ammunition and dual-use expertise to assist Moscow’s battle in Ukraine. U.S. prosecutors say he was detained in 2022 whereas making an attempt to return to Russia from Estonia with about three dozen varieties of semiconductors and digital elements.
6. ARTEM DULTSEV and ANNA DULTSEVA, a Russian couple arrested on espionage expenses in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2022, pleaded responsible Wednesday and have been sentenced to 19 months in jail, and launched on time served. Posing as Argentine residents, they reportedly had used Slovenia as a base since 2017 to journey to neighboring nations and relay Moscow’s orders to different Russian sleeper brokers. They’ve two youngsters.
7. MIKHAIL MIKUSHIN was arrested in Norway in 2022 on espionage expenses. Norway’s home safety company PST stated Mikushin entered the nation saying he was a Brazilian citizen. He was in Norway below a false identification whereas working for a Russia’s intelligence service, Norwegian investigators stated.

(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Related Press)