Biden, Harris welcome home Americans released in Russia prisoner swap
A plane carrying Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva landed at a military base in Maryland after they were freed by Russia in a prisoner exchange.
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A plane carrying Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva landed at a military base in Maryland after they were freed by Russia in a prisoner exchange.
The Biden administration announced the release of three U.S. citizens from Russia, including Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, as part of a complex 24-person prisoner swap.
It's the third time Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with Paul Whelan, who has been detained in Russia since 2018.
The State Department recently said the U.S. made a "significant" proposal for the release of Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich that was rejected by Russia.
Whelan was first detained by Russian authorities in December 2018 while attending a friend's wedding. He was convicted in 2020 of espionage and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor.
"You understand when I say that I can't do an interview, which means that I can't answer any questions," Whelan told a Russia Today reporter.
Trevor Reed, released in 2022 in a U.S.-Russia prisoner swap, was injured recently while fighting for Ukraine in the east of that country, CBS News has learned.
Roger Carstens said "one of his toughest phone calls" was explaining to Paul Whelan why he wasn't included in a prisoner swap with Brittney Griner.
Griner will describe "her stark and surreal time living in a foreign prison and the terrifying aspects of day-to-day life in a women's penal colony," her publisher said.
The WNBA star asked social media followers to join her in sending letters to Whelan, who is still detained in Russia.
Her plane landed in San Antonio, Texas. Griner was freed from Russia in exchange for notorious international arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Moscow said at the time it wanted "a spy for a spy."
Paul Whelan, a 52-year-old retired U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has been imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges since his arrest at the end of 2018.
Brittney Griner's family, friends and fans are celebrating now that the WNBA star is headed back to the United States after being detained in Russia for the past nine months.
Griner has been sentenced for drug possession after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage.
The swap of the Americans, including five oil executives held for nearly five years, is the largest trade of detained citizens ever carried out by the Biden administration.
President Biden met at the White House on Friday with the families of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia.
As the WNBA star's lawyers appeal her 9-year jail sentence, a Russian official has confirmed ongoing talks with the U.S. about a potential prisoner swap.
