Moscow and Western countries have recently conducted a large-scale prisoner swap operation. In this exchange, eight Russians who were detained or convicted in NATO member states returned to their homeland, while 13 convicts of foreign nationalities and Russians linked with the intelligence agencies of Western countries were pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin and left Russia as part of the deal.
The operation was coordinated by Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, which managed to organize seven flights for those intended to be exchanged in the deal. Ten people, including two children, were handed over to Russia, 13 to Germany, and three to the United States. The Russians that returned home particularly include a man sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany under the name Krasikov, and Vladislav Klyushin who had been held in custody in the US.
Artyom Dultsev, his wife Anna Dultseva, Pavel Rubtsov, Vadim Konoshchyonok, Mikhail Mikushin, and Roman Seleznyov are also among those that returned to Russia as part of the swap. These people were earlier sentenced to long prison terms, even life imprisonment, on charges of working for Russian intelligence agencies. However, a source in a Russian competent agency said that in some cases there was no evidence to prove these allegations.
Several foreign nationals and Russian citizens with dual nationalities left Russia as part of the deal, after being pardoned by President Putin. The Kremlin expressed gratitude to the countries involved in helping arrange the prisoner swap and bring Russian nationals back home. A source in a competent Russian body stressed that all parties had fully complied with the agreements reached.
The US president, Joe Biden, announced that Russia handed over 16 people as part of the prisoner swap with Western countries. This included US nationals Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, who were convicted in Russia on charges of espionage. Other notable names involved in this exchange include journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual American-Russian citizen convicted of spreading false information about the Russian army, and Green Card holder publicist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was convicted of high treason.
Among those that left Russia as part of the deal were Artyom Dultsev and his wife Anna, who were convicted of espionage in Slovenia and faced a 19-month prison sentence. Vladislav Klyushin, founder of the M13 high-tech company, was sentenced to nine years in jail on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, and securities fraud by a Boston court. Vadim Konoshchenok was detained by US intelligence officers at the international airport of Male in the Maldives and deported to the United States. In August 2016, a federal jury in Seattle found him guilty of wire fraud, resulting in a 27-year prison sentence and a $170 million fine.
Vadim Krasikov was sentenced to life imprisonment by a German court for his involvement in the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Chechen-born Georgian national who fought for separatists in the Second Chechen War. The prosecutors concluded that the crime was politically motivated and Krasikov had acted on orders from Russian authorities. Mikhail Mikushin was detained in Norway in October 2022 on suspicion of gathering information upon instructions from the Russian authorities, while Pavel Rubtsov was arrested in Poland on suspicion of espionage in February 2022.