American journalist Ivan Gershkovitch and former US Marine Paul Whelan are expected to be released by Russia as part of the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, according to US media.
CNN and other U.S. networks reported the news, and ABC News reported that several countries and Russia were involved in the swap.
There was no immediate confirmation from US officials. The Kremlin declined to comment on any exchanges.
“I still have no comment on this topic,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovitch, 32, was detained in March 2023 and convicted of espionage in July in a fast-track trial that was condemned by the United States.
Signs of an imminent prisoner swap gained momentum on Thursday when reports emerged that the plane used in the previous swap deal had landed in the Russian region of Kaliningrad.
Expectations had also been raised in recent days after several high-profile prisoners in Russia, including Whelan, disappeared from prisons where they were serving long-term sentences.
Those expected to be returned to Russia in exchange include Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen imprisoned in Germany for the brutal murder of a former Chechen rebel commander.
The exchange would be a victory for President Joe Biden, whose Vice President Kamala Harris will face Republican Donald Trump in November’s election.
It will be the first prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since star US basketball player Brittney Griner was exchanged for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in December 2022.
It will also be the biggest exchange since 2010, when 14 alleged spies were exchanged between Russia and the West. These included double agent Sergei Skripal, who was sent to Britain by Moscow, and undercover Russian agent Anna Chapman, who was sent to Russia by Washington.
Previously, large-scale swaps involving more than a dozen people had occurred only during the Cold War, when the Soviet and Western powers carried out swaps in 1985 and 1986.
– ‘hard work’ –
According to flight tracking website Flightradar24, a plane previously used in the exchange between Griner and Bout flew from Moscow to Kaliningrad on Thursday morning. The flight was later tracked taking off from Kaliningrad two hours later.
As a rule, swaps in Russia can only take place after a conviction, and the simultaneous disappearance of several high-profile political prisoners is extremely rare.
Gershkovitch was arrested in the city of Yekaterinburg while on a reporting trip. He, his employer and the US government strongly deny the espionage charges against him.
After the sentencing, Biden said he had “been working hard for Ivan’s release and will continue to do so.”
Washington is also working to secure the release of jailed former Marine Whelan, 54, who was arrested in Moscow in 2018 and charged with espionage.
Whelan was working security for an American auto parts company when he was arrested in Moscow in 2018, and has always maintained that the evidence against him was fabricated.
More recently, he complained that he had been abandoned by Washington.
Among those who disappeared was journalist and activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, a 42-year-old joint Russian and British citizen. His lawyers said on Wednesday they did not know his location after they were twice denied access to the facility where he was to be held.
Kara-Murza, who has spoken out against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is serving a 25-year sentence in Siberia for treason and other charges. He suffers from a neurological illness and was taken to a prison hospital for a medical check-up earlier this month.
One case that added to the intrigue was in Slovenia, where a court sentenced two Russians suspected of spying for Moscow to more than a year and a half in prison — but then ordered them deported from the country.
Arrests of US citizens in Russia have surged in recent years, in what Washington sees as an attempt by the Kremlin to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
