By The newspaper
02 Aug 2024, 00:27 AM EDT
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed three Americans who were released by Russia in a prisoner exchange that freed 24 people held in six countries.
Biden, accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, greeted journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former Marine Paul Whelan as they disembarked from the plane carrying them from Ankara, Turkey, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.
Whelan, who has been imprisoned since 2018 and sentenced to 16 years for espionage and has spent the longest time in Russian prisons, was the first to get off the plane and embraced President Biden before meeting his sister Elizabeth.
Gershkovich, a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested in March 2023 in Russia and sentenced last month to 16 years in prison. He was received by Biden and Harris and by their parents and greeted his colleagues from the press who had been waiting for hours for the arrival of those released.
The emotional welcome was completed by a meeting with the family of Radio Free Europe journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was moved to be reunited with her two daughters and husband after more than a year in detention in Russia.
President Biden said he knew this moment would come for all Americans detained in Russia and said his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin is: “Stop.”
Biden said that this prisoner exchange agreement would not have been possible without the support of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Slovenian government, which allowed the release of prisoners requested by Russia in the exchange.
Biden said journalists working in Russia should not be afraid, but should not “take unnecessary risks.”
The United States and several European allies on Thursday carried out an exchange of 24 prisoners with Russia, the largest since the Cold War: 16 were released from Russia to return to their countries and eight were released from American and European prisons to go to Russia.
The freed Americans will be flown tonight to San Antonio Air Force Base in Texas, where they will be treated in a program known as PISA (post-isolation support activities), to begin life in freedom in the United States after several years in Russian prisons.
Keep reading:
• Biden announces the release of 16 prisoners in historic negotiations with Russia
• Evan Gershkovich, an American accused of espionage in Russia, has begun trial
• Trial of US journalist accused of spying in Russia to begin June 26