Wall Road Journal reporter Irvin Gershkovich has been freed as a part of the biggest prisoner change between Russia and the West because the Chilly Battle.
The 16 folks launched by Russia embrace former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and outstanding Russian opposition politicians and activists jailed for criticizing the sweeping invasion of Ukraine.
Probably the most outstanding of those that returned to Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for assassinating a former Chechen insurgent commander in a Berlin park.
Beneath is the entire for all these launched.
launched by russia
Lilia Chanisheva
Chanisheva, who as soon as headed the workplace of late opposition chief Alexei Navalny within the central republic of Bashkortostan, was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail in June 2023 for founding an “extremist group”. The sentence was later elevated to 9 and a half years in April.
The 42-year-old accountant, who has labored for main corporations together with Deloitte, joined Navalny’s workforce in 2017 to publicly protest towards corruption within the area.
Ksenia Fadeeva
Fadeeva led Navalny’s now-banned group within the Siberian metropolis of Tomsk, the place the opposition chief was poisoned in August 2020 and convicted of “extremism” in December 2023. ” was sentenced to 9 years in jail.
The 32-year-old was elected as a Tomsk metropolis councilor in 2020, a transfer hailed as a victory for the Russian opposition in its battle towards Putin’s rule.
Evan Gershkovich
The 32-year-old Wall Road Journal reporter was arrested within the Ural metropolis of Yekaterinburg in March 2023 and accused of spying for the CIA.
Russia claims that Gershkovic was caught “red-handed” spying on a manufacturing unit within the Urals area that produces tanks for Ukraine, however has offered no proof to assist its declare. The Wall Road Journal denied the allegations. The US labeled the journalist a “wrongful detention,” that means it believed the case was politically motivated.
After a three-day trial, Gershkovic was convicted on July 19 and sentenced to 16 years in jail.
Vladimir Kara-Murza
Kara Murza, a staunch Kremlin critic, was sentenced to 25 years in jail for denouncing Moscow’s actions in Ukraine, one of many harshest sentences ever handed right down to a Putin critic.
The 42-year-old, who holds twin British and Russian citizenship, was arrested in April 2022 after giving a speech in the US accusing Russia of committing “battle crimes” towards Ukraine.
In Could, he gained a Pulitzer Prize for “a passionate column written at nice private threat from a jail cell” in The Washington Put up. He suffered two poisonings within the 2010s, however survived and developed neurological issues.
We’re very happy that Vladimir Kara-Murza has been launched as a part of a prisoner change. He was an extremely courageous and principled man who lately gained a Pulitzer Prize for his column on the Gulag.
He and his household have been via a lot simply because he instructed… pic.twitter.com/ebMuOiUexV— James Jones (@jamesjonesfilm) August 1, 2024
Arsu Kumasheva
On July 19 (the identical day as Gershkovich), 47-year-old American-Russian journalist Kurmasheva was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in an ultra-secret trial that was not reported till days later.
The editor of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, she was accused of violating Russia’s strict army censorship legal guidelines and was arrested whereas touring from her house in Prague to Russia to go to her ailing mom. RFE/RL referred to as her case “a travesty of justice.”
Kevin Leake
Arrested at age 17, Leik, who holds twin Russian and German citizenship, was sentenced to 4 years in jail in 2023 for allegedly sending pictures of Russian army installations seen from his condominium, changing into the primary particular person in Russia to be convicted of treason. The youngest man on the window of the German safety companies.
Moises, Germany
One other Russian-German twin nationwide, Moises, faces treason costs after being arrested in St. Petersburg in Could, in accordance with Russian state media.
Few particulars of the case towards him have been launched. Moises is an immigration lawyer who is thought in St. Petersburg as an city activist and pro-cycling activist.
Oleg Orlov
The veteran activist and Nobel laureate, a key determine within the now-banned human rights group Memorial, was jailed for 2 years in February after calling Russia a “fascist” state and criticizing its invasion of Ukraine Half.
The memorial stated the trial of 71-year-old Olof was “a travesty of justice and an assault on the basic proper to freedom of expression.”
Vadim Ostanin
Ostanin, the previous head of one other regional department of Navalny, was sentenced to 9 years in jail in 2023 for his involvement in “extremist” teams.
⚡️ Oleg Orlov is free!
We demand the discharge of all different political prisoners in Russia and Belarus.
Russian human rights defender and co-founder of the Memorial group Oleg Orlov was launched from jail at the moment and transferred to Cologne (Germany) in a historic change of political prisoners. pic.twitter.com/Q2XWqenTxj
— English Memorial Corridor (@EnMemorial) August 1, 2024
Andrei Pivovarov
Russian opposition activist Pivovarov leads the pro-democracy Open Russia Basis, which is funded by exiled former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, himself He was additionally jailed for ten years for opposing Putin.
Pivovarov was forcibly faraway from the aircraft by Russian intelligence brokers earlier than leaving Russia and was sentenced to 4 years in jail in July 2022 for cooperating with “undesirable” organizations.
Patrick Scheibel
Scheibel, a German citizen, was arrested at St. Petersburg airport earlier this 12 months after customs officers discovered marijuana gummy bears in his baggage.
Alexandra Skochilenko
Artist Alexandra Skochilenko was jailed for seven years in November 2023 for spreading “disinformation” after she changed 5 grocery store costs with messages important of Russia’s battle in Ukraine Label. Sasha, 33, of St. Petersburg, was arrested in April 2022 after an aged grocery store buyer found the knowledge and notified the police.
Dieter Voronin
Voronin, a twin citizen of Russia and Germany, was sentenced to 13 years in jail on costs of “treason” after Moscow claimed he had obtained categorized army messages from one other journalist, Ivan Safronov, who’s at present Nonetheless in jail.
Paul Whelan
Whelan, a former U.S. Marine with U.S., British, Irish and Canadian citizenship, was arrested at a Moscow resort in 2018 allegedly with a trove of categorized paperwork whereas working as a safety director for a U.S. auto components producer.
Like Gershkovich, 54-year-old Whelan strongly denies the fees towards him and has been deemed “wrongfully detained” by the US.
Ilya Yashin
Yashin, 41, was jailed for eight-and-a-half years in December 2022 for spreading “disinformation” about Russian forces after denouncing the “homicide of civilians” within the Ukrainian city of Bucha earlier that 12 months.
Yashin rose to prominence in the course of the wave of anti-Kremlin protests in 2011-12 and was a long-time pal and ally of Navalny, who died in an Arctic exile in February, and of Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in Moscow in 2015.
Yashin was elected chairman of the Moscow Area Meeting in 2017 however has been blocked a number of instances from taking greater positions. He has additionally been labeled a “overseas agent” by the Russian authorities.
Launched by Belarus
Rico Krieger
In June, Belarus sentenced Krieger, a 30-year-old German citizen, to demise for allegedly photographing army websites and putting explosive units on railway strains close to Minsk on orders from Ukraine.
On Tuesday, President Alexander Lukashenko, a senior Putin ally, introduced that Krieger had been pardoned.
Launched by the US, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway
Artem Durtsev and Anna Durtseva
Durtsev and Durtseva, each 40, had been arrested in Slovenia in 2022 and this week had been sentenced to at least one and a half years in jail after being discovered responsible of espionage in a closed trial. above imprisonment.
The couple settled within the capital, Ljubljana, in 2017 utilizing Argentinian passports. Authorities say they had been Russian brokers who traveled to neighboring nations – members of NATO and the European Union – to ship orders from Moscow and ship money to different sleeper brokers. Their two youngsters, who attend a global faculty in Ljubljana, had been additionally included within the change.
Vladislav Klyushin
The US sentenced 42-year-old Klyushin to 9 years in jail in September 2023 for an “elaborate hacking and buying and selling scheme” that concerned hacking into firm techniques to steal confidential info after which use it for securities buying and selling, netting about $93 million.
Vadim Konoszchenok
Konoszchenok was arrested in Estonia final 12 months on costs of attempting to purchase U.S. army gear for Russia to be used within the battle in Ukraine and was later extradited to the US. Washington claimed the 48-year-old “had ties to Russia’s Federal Safety Service”.
Vadim Krasikov
Krasikov, 58, an alleged hitman from Russia’s Federal Safety Service, murdered exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident Zelim Khan “Tonic” Khango in broad daylight in a Berlin park on August 23. Shvili was later sentenced to life imprisonment.
A German choose accused Russia of state terrorism and stated the order to kill should have been given by President Putin himself.
Moscow rejected that clarification, however Putin urged in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson in February that Krasikov was the Russian prisoner he most wished in change for Gershkovic, referring to a “One who, out of patriotic sentiments, kills a bandit.” European capitals”.
Mikhail Mikushin
Mikushin was arrested in Norway in 2022 and accused of impersonating a Brazilian researcher at a college within the northern metropolis of Tromso.
Investigative media Bellingcat stated he was truly a colonel in Russia’s GRU army intelligence service, and Norwegian media reported that he didn’t communicate Portuguese, Brazil’s nationwide language.
Pavel Rubtsov
RubtsovBorn in Russia and transferring to Spain along with his mom when he was 9, he was arrested in Poland in February 2022 simply 4 days after Moscow started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Poland claims RubtsovThe Spanish title is Pablo Gonzalez. He was an agent of Russia’s GRU army intelligence division and engaged in undercover work as a reporter.
Roman Seleznev
One other Russian hacker, Seleznev, was arrested within the Maldives in 2014.
He was convicted in the US of launching cyberattacks on hundreds of U.S. companies that concerned hacking into financial institution card fee terminals to steal bank card particulars, inflicting $169 million in losses, and was jailed for 27 years in 2017 .
That very same 12 months, Seleznev, the son of a Russian congressman, additionally pleaded responsible to collaborating in a racketeering scheme in Nevada and conspiring to commit financial institution fraud in Georgia. He was jailed for a further 14 years every, to run concurrently along with his earlier sentences.
