MOSCOW: A massive prisoner swap involving Russia, Belarus, the United States, Germany, Slovenia and Britain expanded on Thursday, but there was no official confirmation that it was the biggest since the Cold War.
Fox News reports that jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is expected to return to the United States late Thursday as part of a prisoner swap.
According to flight tracking site Flightradar24, a special Russian government plane previously used in prisoner exchanges between the United States and Russia took off from Moscow and traveled to Kaliningrad, Russia, near the border with Lithuania and Poland, before returning to the Russian capital.
Pervy Otdel (First Department), an association specializing in defending people in treason and espionage cases in Russia, said the flight could mean a prisoner exchange took place at the Polish border. Reuters could not confirm this.
Former US Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-British dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, both of whom were imprisoned in Russia, have suddenly disappeared from view, their lawyers said a day ago. At least seven Russian dissidents have been unexpectedly transferred from prison in recent days.
On Thursday, Russian media reported unconfirmed reports that another dissident and opposition activist, Vadim Ostanin, had been taken from a Siberian prison and brought to Moscow.
Russian online news outlet Agenstvo reported that in recent days at least six special Russian government planes have flown over the area where the prisons holding dissidents are located.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Russian national Alexander Vinnik, who is being held in the U.S., declined to confirm his client’s whereabouts to the state-run RIA news agency on Wednesday “until the exchange takes place.” However, RIA reported that Arkady Bukh, a lawyer representing Russian detainees, had told him that they were “on their way” to an unknown location.
RIA also reported that four Russian nationals imprisoned in the United States have disappeared from the inmate database maintained by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They were named as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klyushin.
The United States also detains at least two Russians convicted of serious cybercrime, Vladimir Dunayev and Roman Seleznev, who are also potential suspects.
The Kremlin refused to say whether an exchange was imminent, nor did the Russian embassy in Washington, and Western countries had no comment. Such exchanges are usually shrouded in secrecy until they happen.
Dissidents inside Russia who have come forward in recent days after hearing of the sudden transfer include opposition politician Ilya Yashin, human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Daniil Krinari, who was convicted of secretly collaborating with a foreign government.
People who have suddenly disappeared from the prison system include Kevin Rick, a German-Russian citizen convicted of treason, opposition activists Lilia Chanisheva and Ksenia Fadeeva, and anti-war artist Sasha Skochylenko.
Ivan Pavlov, a prominent Russian human rights lawyer who now lives in Prague and founded Pervi Odel, said the disappearance of so many people with similar profiles suggested the authorities were probably rounding them up for exchange in Moscow.
He said that President Vladimir Putin must pardon them before the exchange, which is a necessary formality. Media outlet “Important Stories” noted that, according to the government website, Putin signed several secret decrees on July 30, which could be pardons for prisoners.
In December 2022, Russia traded basketball star Brittany Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was sentenced to 25 years in the United States.
The largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War took place in 2010, involving a total of 14 people.
The West sees the detainees as political prisoners.
In the West, dissidents are seen as political prisoners, unjustly detained by governments and activists. They are all designated as dangerous extremists by Moscow for different reasons.
It is expected that two journalists will also be included in this exchange.
On July 19, Gershkovich was found guilty of espionage, a charge he denied, with unusual speed. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison, and Russia has already confirmed talks about a possible exchange for him.
Also convicted in a secret trial that same day, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmaseva of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian military. She denies wrongdoing.
Other Americans jailed in Russia include former teacher Mark Fogel, who was convicted of possession of marijuana, which he said he used for medical purposes.
Meanwhile in Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, pardoned German Rico Krieger on Tuesday after he was sentenced to death on terrorism charges, again with unusual haste in state media.
Among those wanted by Moscow is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a Chechen-Georgian dissident in exile in a Berlin park.
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to prison for espionage and using fake IDs and ordered their deportation, state news agency STA reported. Slovenian TV channels said the move was part of a wider exchange.
Reuters could not independently verify this.
