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For months, there has been speculation about a prisoner exchange between the West and Russia. The “Tiergarten murderer” convicted in Berlin is not the only one who plays a central role.
Berlin/Moscow/Ankara – Numerous prisoners have been released in a prisoner exchange between Russia and Western states. The Kremlin confirmed that the people released in the prisoner exchange were pardoned by President Vladimir Putin. There are also some very well-known names among those released.
He shot a Georgian in the middle of Berlin: “Tiergarten murderer” released
Take the “Tiergarten murderer” Vadim K.: He spent more than a year in the dock at the Berlin Regional Court. On December 15, 2021, the judges sentenced the Russian to life imprisonment for the murder of a Georgian on August 23, 2019 in Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten park.
The court is convinced that those who ordered the murder were based in Russia. According to the verdict, the Georgian had long been in the Russian Federation’s sights because he led a militia in the fight against Russia for several years during the second Chechen war. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin later publicly called the murder victim a “bandit”, “murderer” and “bloodthirsty person”.
Americans released by Russia are on their way to the USA. © X/Twitter
US journalist imprisoned in Russia: Putin releases Gershkovich
The American journalist and Wall Street Journal-Reporter Evan Gershkovich was released. The 32-year-old US reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a strict prison camp in mid-July in a controversial trial for alleged espionage. The Russia correspondent of the US magazine Wall Street Journal was arrested by the Russian secret service FSB on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in the Urals at the end of 2023. He was accused of collecting secret information about Russia’s arms complex for US agencies. The Wall Street Journal denied this, saying that Gershkovich was carrying out his work with official accreditation.
The US government demanded the journalist’s release for months. After his arrest, several US media outlets withdrew their own correspondents from Moscow because they feared political persecution of their employees by the Russian state. Observers in Moscow interpreted Gershkovich’s quick conviction as a possible indication that an agreement with the US side could soon be reached. According to Russian judicial practice, a verdict must usually be reached before an exchange can take place.
Former US soldier Paul Whelan: Russia arrested him for “espionage”
Paul Whelan was also released. The 54-year-old former US soldier was sentenced to 16 years in a penal camp by a Russian court in June 2020 for alleged spying. Before that, he had been in prison for around a year and a half. According to the FSB, Whelan, who has multiple nationalities, was caught red-handed as a spy. He is said to have received secret data on a USB stick.
Whelan vehemently protested his innocence and spoke of a politically motivated verdict. According to the defense, during one of his many visits to Moscow he assumed that the data storage device only contained private content. He had been at a friend’s wedding in Moscow when the FSB seized the data. The US government repeatedly demanded Whelan’s release because no evidence had been presented in the trial. There was also criticism of the prison conditions. Whelan became seriously ill while in custody and had to undergo emergency surgery.
First sentenced to death, then pardoned: German Rico K. is released
The 30-year-old German Rico K. was sentenced to death in Belarus (formerly Belarus) at the end of June. The accusation: mercenaryism and terrorism. Rico K., a paramedic from Hildesheim, had allegedly been recruited as a mercenary by the Ukrainian secret service SBU. Since Belarus is the last country in Europe to carry out the death penalty, the Foreign Office was also very concerned. Berlin criticized the way the man was treated as “unbearable” after he was paraded on state television and pleaded guilty. During the appearance, he asked ruler Alexander Lukashenko for a pardon and the German government for help.
Lukashenko lifted the death sentence against the man on Thursday last week after a meeting with investigators and the lawyer. The decision, which Minsk described as a humanitarian gesture, was also seen as a sign of the impending prisoner exchange. Belarus itself had announced that it had made a negotiation offer to the Foreign Office in Berlin.
Russian opposition activist: Vladimir Kara-Mursa to be released in prisoner exchange
42-year-old Vladimir Kara-Murza is one of the most prominent opposition figures in Russia. In April 2023, he was sentenced to 25 years in a prison camp on charges of high treason. The unprecedented verdict sparked horror around the world. Recently, there have been great concerns about the politician, who has long been in poor health. His wife Yevgenia Kara-Murza repeatedly raised the alarm on social networks – especially when contact was completely lost after her husband was transferred to a Siberian prison hospital.
Kara-Mursa’s wife recalled that her husband was suffering from a chronic illness after two poisoning attacks. According to his lawyer, Kara-Mursa was transferred to a cell with difficult conditions in June for what was initially planned to be six months. Such particularly cramped cells are a common form of harassment used by guards in the penal camp for political prisoners. Kara-Mursa is also supported by the Kremlin opponent and former oil manager Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who himself was once freed from the penal camp through German mediation.
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Sharp Putin critic: The Kremlin also releases Ilya Yashin
The 41-year-old politician Ilya Yashin is one of the harshest critics of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. Yashin stayed in Russia when many other Kremlin opponents had already fled abroad. Because he denounced the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and, above all, blamed the soldiers of his homeland for the massacre of civilians in Bucha near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, he was sentenced to eight and a half years in a penal camp in December 2022 for denigrating the army.
“Putin is a war criminal, but I’m staying behind bars,” Yashin told the court. “This is a strange situation, don’t you think?” He is also known for his political closeness to opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in a penal camp in the Arctic region in February, and to former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, who was shot near the Kremlin.
Commitment to human rights: Activist Oleg Orlov is freed in prisoner exchange
71-year-old Oleg Orlov is one of the best-known human rights activists and bravest fighters for justice in Russia. The co-founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Memorial was also sentenced to two and a half years in a labor camp for criticizing Putin’s war. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is responsible for the Nobel Peace Prize, criticized the activist’s conviction as politically motivated.
Orlov himself was often present as an observer at court cases against dissidents. He made a name for himself as a critic of Russian judicial arbitrariness, primarily because of his civil courage, which was valued by many. He also stayed in Russia despite the risk of imprisonment in order to continue to fight against political repression in the country. Memorial was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for documenting war crimes, human rights violations and abuse of power in the former Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.
Another journalist in Russian custody: Kurmasheva is released along with Gershkovich
Just a few days ago, a Russian court sentenced the American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva to six and a half years in a penal colony for allegedly spreading false reports about the army. The reason for the verdict was a book she published in November 2022 entitled “No to War. 40 Stories of Russians Resisting the Invasion of Ukraine,” according to the Russian opposition platform Medusa Kurmasheva, who works for the Tatar program of the US foreign broadcaster Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), had been incarcerated since October. She was also released as part of the prisoner exchange in Ankara.
