Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich In his first public comments on US soil since his release as part of a prisoner exchange, he chose to defend dissidents living in Russian prisons.
“I have something to say. It was great to get on that bus today and see not only Americans and Germans, but also Russian political prisoners,” Gershkovich said in a brief interview with The Guardian’s Andrew Roth as he got off the plane at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. .
“I just spent a month in prison in Yekaterinburg, everyone I’m sitting here with is a political prisoner,” he said.
Seven Russian citizens who worked with the four deceased opposition figures Alexi Navalny, was among 24 people released in Thursday’s multinational prisoner swap. They were arrested in their country and released to the West.
Regarding the opponents he met behind bars, Gershkovic said that no one knew them openly, but that they had different political beliefs. “Not all of them are supporters of Navalny,” he added.
“It was a really poignant moment today … but it would be nice to see if we could potentially do something about them as well,” he said.
President Joe Biden called the deal “a feat of diplomacy and friendship.” It was cut between seven nationalities involving 24 people, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens, detained in Russia and eight Russians He is in prison in the USA, Germany, Slovenia, Norway and Poland.
The exchange took place in Turkey and carrying the plane Gershkovich, a sea veteran Paul Whelan, reporter Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-MurzaA legal permanent resident of the United States, landed in Maryland at 11:38 p.m
After greeting them, in his speech to the nation, Biden directly addressed the Russian citizens who were released as part of the deal.
“They stood up for democracy and human rights, their own leaders threw them in jail. The United States also helped to free them,” he said.
Whelan, who was arrested in Russia in 2018 and served more than five years in two previous prisoner swaps, called his return to the United States a “good homecoming.”
“It was great to get off the plane and see the president, the vice president,” Whelan said. “I look forward to seeing my family here and recovering from 5 years, 7 months and 5 days of utter nonsense from the Russian government.”
He thanked his supporters, who said he received thousands of letters and cards, “so many that the FSB stopped giving them to me.”
Whelan, who was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison, called the charges brought against him by the Russian government “a story of their own nonsense” and they will not let it go.
“This is how Putin runs his government. This is how Putin runs his country,” he added.
“I’m glad to be home,” he said. “I will never go back there.”
In Moscowthe difference could not be more stark.
At Vnukovo-2 airport, the capital of Russia. assassins, cybercriminals and others arrested for espionagetight hugs and handshakes and a few words from the unsmiling President Vladimir Putin.
“For your oath, your duty and your loyalty to the motherland, I express my gratitude to your motherland, which did not forget you even for a minute,” he said.
Putin also greeted the spy family who presented themselves as Argentine citizens while living in Slovenia before being detained there. On Wednesday, Artem and Anna Dultseva were found guilty of espionage in a closed trial in the capital city of Ljubljana.
The couple introduced themselves as Ludwig Gisch and Maria Rosa Mayer Muños and settled in Slovenia in 2017. Their two children were studying at an international school in Ljubljana, local media reported.
After a Kremlin spokesman described the pair as “illegal spies”. Dmitry Peskov On Friday, he said that Putin spoke to the children in Spanish.
“When the children got off the plane – they don’t speak Russian – and Putin just greeted them in Spanish. He said “Buenas noches,” Peskov said.
He added that they found out that they were Russians only when they were on the plane that took them to Moscow.
“Yesterday they asked their parents who this guy was meeting with them, they didn’t even know who Putin was,” Peskov said.