In August of 2024, the United States and Russia conducted one of their largest prisoner exchanges at the Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey. The exchange also included the following countries: Germany, Poland, Norway, Slovenia, and Belarus. Russia and Belarus released 16 prisoners from their custody, while America and European nations released ten prisoners and two minors from their custody, totaling to 26 people exchanged between the two parties.
Among the 16 people freed from Russian custody, 13 of them returned to Germany, and three of them returned to the United States, two of the three people relocated to America include Wall Street Journalist, Evan Gershkovich, 32, arrested on espionage charges, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty editor Alsu Kurmasheva, 48, charged for sharing false information involving the Russian military. In addition, Russia released former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, 54, who faced charges on suspicion of spying. All three people received medical checkups following the exchange at the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas.
Notable figures among the eight people returned to Russia include a high-profile FSB colonel Vadim Krasikov, 58, Russian citizen, charged for the murder of a Chechen rebel in Berlin park in 2019, Vadim Konoshchenok, 48, charged for his role in money laundering and procurement, businessman Vladislav Klyushin, 43, charged for an act labeled as a “hack-to-trade scheme,” and Roman Seleznev, 40, charged for hacking and stealing and selling credit card numbers.
Today, the 2024 Ankara prisoner exchange still stands as the largest and most prominent US-Russia exchange since the Cold War.
