Two Americans freed in the recent prisoner swap have spoken publicly for the first time after touching down on U.S. soil, giving the nation a glimpse into their experience behind bars in Russia.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan landed Thursday night at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland where they were greeted by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Americans were part of the largest and most complex prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the Cold War. which involved 24 prisoners. Sixteen prisoners were released to Europe and the United States in exchange for eight Russians who were freed from prisons in the United States, Norway, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia.
Gershkovich, who was sentenced to 16 years in July 2024 for espionage, spoke to reporters in his first public comment after being freed in which he advocated for the release of political prisoners from Russian jails.
“I just spent a month in prison in Yekaterinburg where basically everyone I was sat with is a political prisoner,” he said. “Nobody knows them publicly, they have various political beliefs.”
Gershkovich suggested he would soon be revisiting the issue of political prisoners in Russia.
“Today was a really touching moment … but it would be good to see if we could potentially do something about [the political prisoners] as well. … I’d like to talk to some people about that in the next few weeks or months,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal on Thursday published an opinion piece on his release and insisted that he would not be the last U.S. citizen taken if American policy doesn’t change.
“Everyone at the Wall Street Journal is relieved and grateful for the release on Thursday of our reporter Evan Gershkovich from the Russian gulag. He has endured an awful 16-month ordeal,” the article stated. “Yet the price of the prisoner swap that won the release of Evan and other Kremlin captives highlights how dictators are using human hostages to promote terrorism beyond their borders.”
Paul Whelan, 54, was arrested in Moscow in 2018 on suspicion of spying. He was convicted of espionage in 2020 and given a 16-year jail sentence.
Whelan, a Canadian-born former marine with U.S., British, Irish, and Canadian citizenship, told reporters that Russia built a false story about him.
“The [Federal Security Service] grabbed me, said that I was a spy, I’m a general in the Army, a secret agent for [Defense Intelligence Agency],” Whelan said. “This is the nonsense narrative they came up with. They wouldn’t let it go. This is how Putin runs his government.”
“I’m glad I’m home, I’m never going back there,” he pledged.
“Looking forward to seeing his family down here and just recuperating from five years, seven months, and five days of just absolute nonsense from the Russian government,” Whelan said.
He also acknowledged the people who “worked tirelessly” on the prisoner swap, citing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sulivan. He added that it was “a good homecoming” and noted that Biden gave him his American flag pin off of his lapel.
The Michigan native had been left out of a previous prisoner swap that freed WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner.
Speaking to the media at the Paris Olympics, Griner said it was “a great day” and that she was “head over heels happy” for the families.
“Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win. That’s a win,” she said.
Biden called the historic prisoner swap “a feat of democracy” and pledged to bring other wrongfully detained Americans back home. Sullivan vowed to build on the success of the swap and continue to work toward freeing U.S. citizens abroad, specifically naming Pennsylvania teacher Marc Fogel. The 65-year-old was excluded from the prisoner exchange and has been jailed in Russia since 2021 for possession of medical marijuana.