US media: Russia and West agree large-scale prisoner exchange
There was initially no official confirmation of the prisoner swap. The Kremlin declined to comment on corresponding speculation on Thursday prior to the publication of US media reports on the prisoner swap.
Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony on July 19 for "espionage". The trial against the 32-year-old lasted just over three weeks. The 54-year-old former US soldier Whelan was imprisoned in Russia in December 2018.
In recent days, the transfer of several opposition figures imprisoned in Russia, as well as the unclear whereabouts of other inmates, had fueled speculation about an impending larger prisoner swap. Apart from Whelan, the independent website "Sotavision" also mentioned the German-Russian Kevin Lik, who was convicted of treason.
According to their lawyers, the Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Mursa, convicted of "high treason" and "dissemination of false information", and opposition politician Ilya Yashin, who was a close associate of the 2015 murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and friend of Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian labor camp, were also recently transferred.
The US media reports suggested a potential prisoner swap, including the release of Whelan. Subsequently, the Russian government confirmed the release of several prisoners, including opposition figures and foreign nationals.
