Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan have been released as part of a major prisoner swap with the United States, according to several local media reports and Bloomberg TV on Thursday.
Both men were imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, and according to Russia Today, they are reportedly on their way to Turkey. Earlier, The Moscow Times revealed in another report that Gershkovich could be returned to the United States in a multinational swap that included Germany and Belarus, Ednews reports.
Gershkovich, a 32-year-old US citizen, has been jailed since March of 2023 when he was detained by the country's Federal Security Service while on a reporting task in Yekaterinburg. In June, Russian prosecutors approved an indictment alleging that he was gathering information on behalf of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
