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In Turkey’s capital Ankara, a major prisoner exchange involving Russia, the U.S. and several other countries, including Poland, occurred this Thursday. Turkish authorities coordinated the extensive operation, transferring 24 people, among them two children, from prisons across seven different countries. The swap, reminiscent of Cold War-era exchanges, saw 10 individuals, including two minors, sent to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States.
The prisoners involved hailed from the U.S., Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus. The individuals were transported to the Turkish capital aboard seven aircraft, according to the Turkish news agency Anatolia. Among those exchanged were high-profile figures such as Evan Gershkovich, a 32-year-old Wall Street Journal correspondent previously sentenced to 16 years in Russia for alleged espionage, and Paul Whelan, also sentenced in Russia under similar charges.
Other notable figures included Russian opposition activist Ilja Jaszyn, former collaborator of the assassinated Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, and 29-year-old German citizen Rico Krieger, who was facing the death penalty in Belarus. Former FSB agent Vadim Krasikov, sentenced to life in Germany for the murder of a Chechen-Georgian dissident, was also part of the exchange.
This exchange also saw the release of Pawel Rubcov, a GRU military intelligence officer arrested by Poland at the Polish-Ukrainian border in 2022. Rubcov, who had been posing as a Spanish journalist named Pablo Gonzales, was gathering information in Ukraine for Russian special services and seeking to gain the trust of Russian oppositionists.
Following the swap, U.S. President Joe Biden called Polish President Andrzej Duda to express gratitude for Poland’s role in securing the release of American citizens.
Duda’s office highlighted the conversation on the social media platform X, underscoring the strength of the strategic partnership and alliance between the two nations.
In response to the successful completion of the prisoner exchange, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk remarked on X: “The operation to exchange prisoners has just concluded, freeing heroes of the Russian opposition and NATO citizens detained in Russia. This action was possible thanks to our country’s involvement. I thank the president and our services for their exemplary cooperation.”
Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesperson for the Polish minister of internal affairs, announced that in response to a request from the U.S. authorities, Poland has agreed to include GRU officer Pawel Rubcov in a prisoner exchange with individuals detained in Russia, Belarus, and NATO countries, highlighting the close Polish-American alliance and mutual commitment to democratic values.