On Thursday, it was reported that Russia is releasing Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan in a prisoner swap, according to Bloomberg News.
The two men are already on their way out of Russia, according to Bloomberg.
Gershkovich, 32, was arrested in March 2023 in Yekaterinburg, accused of being a CIA spy and convicted in June. Russia also accused Whelan, the former director of global security for auto-parts supplier BorgWarner, of being a spy when he was arrested in 2018 at a wedding in Moscow. They accused him of keeping a flash drive that allegedly contained Russian state secrets. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Russian prosecutors had alleged that “under instructions from the CIA” and “using painstaking conspiratorial methods,” Gershkovich “was collecting secret information” regarding a Russian defense contractor….
