US reporter Gershkovich among 26 freed in Russia prisoner deal
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00:00These details still to be confirmed. The 26th number is slightly higher than what I've been
00:06having confirmed to be by my sources. So that is still to be determined. But yes, at least three
00:14Russian, sorry, three U.S. nationals believed to be among these people being exchanged. The top
00:20lines really of it are Paul Whelan and Evan Guskovich, that being confirmed just in the last
00:26short while by the Turkish presidency itself. Of course, these two prisoners have been two
00:32people that the U.S. has been trying to get back for some time. Paul Whelan has been in detention
00:39in Moscow, in Russia rather, since 2018. He is a former U.S. Marine who was acting as the
00:46director of global security for a car firm based in Michigan when he was arrested on what the
00:53Kremlin says were espionage charges. Those are charges that he denies and the U.S. denies as
00:58well. He's been in prison ever since 2018. And Evan Guskovich as well has also been in jail
01:07in Russia since 2023, a Wall Street Journal reporter who the Russians claim was taking
01:15information about a tank factory and giving that to the CIA. That, of course, also being
01:21denied by Evan, by also the Wall Street Journal and the United States as well.
01:26But this has been a key point in U.S. diplomacy for the last couple of years of the Biden
01:32administration. Biden, in the past, if you look at the hostages that were taken,
01:37the American citizens taken by Hamas, he has made it a point to make sure that all American hostages
01:43do come home. And that is something that also extends to Americans who have been wrongly
01:48imprisoned abroad as well. So, of course, this is a bit of a tit-for-tat game that the United
01:53States has been playing with Russia, not just over these three people that we are expecting
01:59to come back. I'm told there may also be another person included in that list as well.
02:05But also, if you look to the past as well, there have been exchanges, two exchanges in the last
02:12two years. The most high profile before this one was, of course, for Brittany Greiner, the
02:16basketball star who was exchanged for a Russian arms dealer. So, that taking place in December
02:222022. So, there is a history of this between the U.S. and Russia, despite, obviously,
02:26ongoing tensions, mainly over the war in Ukraine. A statement posted online a short while ago,
02:33the Radio Free Europe stating that a journalist working for the broadcaster,
02:40Alzu Kurmasheva, would be released as part of the deal. That's another name to watch
02:47out for. I wanted to ask you on this, Fraser Jackson, any word on whether some of the other
02:55big names that had been mentioned, such as we talked about it at the outset,
03:03some prominent opposition figures in Russia could be in that mix?
03:11Yeah, it's possible. There are, of course, a lot of political prisoners that have been taken by
03:19the Russians over the course of the last couple of years. Of course, Alexei Navalny was arguably
03:24the biggest name on that list, but of course, he died whilst he was in prison. But there are
03:31various people who work for his company that have been detained by Russian authorities.
03:36And of course, there are some other high-profile critics of the Kremlin as well. They've also
03:42been arrested by the Russians. I'm thinking of Vladimir Kozmara, who's also a Russian national,
03:50but is also a British national as well. He is somebody who has said has been poisoned by the
03:56Kremlin multiple times with the nerve agent Novichok, and he has been in detention since
04:02being taken from his house in Moscow just a couple of years ago. So there are some
04:08high-profile names that we're going to be looking out for. Of course, we don't have
04:11the actual list of names of people who are going to be included in this prisoner exchange,
04:17but we'll get more details when it is made officially confirmed.