Turkey announces 26 prisoner swap between Russia and the West

Turkey coordinated on Thursday in Ankara an exchange of twenty-six prisoners between Russia and several Western countries, among them the American journalist Evan Gershkovich, announced the Turkish presidency.

“MIT (Turkish intelligence services, editor's note) has carried out in Ankara the largest prisoner exchange operation in recent times, which involved 26 people from prisons in seven different countries (the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus),” the Turkish presidency announced in a statement.

“Ten prisoners, including two minors, were transferred to Russia, thirteen to Germany and three to the United States,” the Turkish presidency specified.

“The prisoners were transported to Turkey by seven planes, including two from the United States, one each from Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Russia, as part of the prisoner exchange operation,” she further specifies.

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In addition to Evan Gershkovich, there are former marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia since the end of 2018, Vadim Krassikov, an alleged Russian agent imprisoned in Germany for the assassination of a former Chechen separatist commander in Berlin in 2019, Rico Krieger, a German convicted in Belarus for “terrorism” and “mercenarism” and the Russian opponent Ilia Iachine, sentenced at the end of 2022 to eight and a half years in prison for having denounced alleged crimes to Russia in Ukraine.

The names of the other prisoners concerned have not been communicated by the Turkish presidency.

AFP witnessed the landing of two aircraft, one in Russian colors, the other a Falcon type, at Ankara civil airport shortly before 4:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. GMT).

In its long press release, the Turkish presidency emphasizes that the Turkish intelligence services carried out this operation “from the start of the negotiation process until the final moment when the exchanges took place” .

“MIT ensured all security measures, logistical planning, compliance with requirements and facilitated communication and coordination between parties.”

According to his report, “all the prisoners were disembarked and placed in safe places, under the supervision of the MIT” where “ratification procedures between the parties, health checks of prisoners and completion of other required formalities”.

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