MOSCOW: Signs of a major prison exchange between Russia and Belarus on the one hand and the US, Germany, Slovenia and Britain on the other, increased on Thursday but there was no official confirmation of what would be the biggest swap. since the Cold War.
Fox News reported that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was scheduled to return to the United States as part of a possible prisoner exchange on Thursday.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 has revealed that a private Russian government plane used in previous prisoner exchanges involving the US and Russia was traveling from Moscow to the region Russian Kaliningrad which borders Lithuania and Poland before returning to the Russian capital.
Pervy Otdel (First Branch), an organization specializing in the protection of people in the Russian case of treason and espionage, said that the flight could mean that a prisoner exchange took place on the Polish border. Reuters could not confirm this.
Former US Navy SEAL Paul Whelan and Russian-British dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, both jailed in Russia, suddenly disappeared, their lawyers said a day earlier, after being extradited at least seven Russian dissidents were expected in his prison. in recent days.
On Thursday, there were unconfirmed Russian media reports that another dissident, opposition activist Vadim Ostanin, had been released from a Siberian prison and moved to Moscow.
Russian online news agency “Agenstvo” reported that at least six special Russian government planes have flown in recent days to areas where dissident prisons are located.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian man detained in the United States, declined on Wednesday to confirm the whereabouts of his client to the RIA news agency “until the transaction.” But the lawyer, Arkady Bukh, was quoted by RIA as saying he was told by lawyers representing people imprisoned in Russia that he was “on his way” to an unknown destination.
RIA also reported that four Russians imprisoned in the United States have disappeared from the inmate database managed by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons. They were named as Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klyushin.
The United States is also holding at least two Russian nationals, Vladimir Dunaev and Roman Seleznev, convicted of cybercrimes, who may also be identified.
The Kremlin declined to say whether the exchange was imminent, as did Russia's embassy in Washington, and there was no comment from Western countries. Such transactions are usually shrouded in secrecy until such time.
Among the dissidents in Russia whose supporters say have been on the rise in recent days are opposition politician Ilya Yashin, human rights activist Oleg Orlov and convicted accomplice Daniil Krinari. worked secretly for a foreign government.
Others suddenly missing from the prison system include German-Russian citizen Kevin Lik, convicted of treason, opposition activists Liliya Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeeva, and anti-war artist Sasha Skochilenko.
Ivan Pavlov, a prominent Russian human rights lawyer now based in Prague who founded Pervy Otdel, said the disappearance of many people with a similar profile suggested authorities would round them up, perhaps in Moscow. for exchange.
He said that President Vladimir Putin needs to forgive their crimes before the exchange, a necessary formality. Attention was drawn to the fact that Putin, according to the government's website, signed several secret decrees on July 30 that he said were amnesties.
In December 2022, Russia sold basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years in prison for having a vaping card with cannabis oil in her luggage, to arms dealer Viktor Bout, serving a 25-year sentence there United States.
The largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War took place in 2010, involving a total of 14 people.
THE WEST IS LOOKING FOR THE TIME TO BE A POLITICAL PRISONER
In the West, governments and activists view dissidents as illegally imprisoned political prisoners. All, for various reasons, have been designated by Moscow as dangerous extremists.
It is also expected that the exchange of information will include two journalists.
On July 19, Gershkovich was unusually quickly convicted of espionage charges he denied. He was held in prison for 16 years and Russia has already stepped up talks about his exchange.
Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also convicted in a secret trial the same day and sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison, accused of disseminating false information about the Russian army. He refuses to be wrong.
Other Americans behind bars in Russia include former teacher Marc Fogel, convicted of possessing marijuana, which he said he used for medical purposes.
In Belarus, meanwhile, President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, on Tuesday pardoned Rico Krieger, a German sentenced to death on terrorism charges, again with unprecedented haste. common and public information.
Among those Moscow has indicated it wants is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving in Germany for killing an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park.
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians convicted of espionage and using their personal information and said they would be deported, state news agency STA reported, a move that Slovenian television said was part of a larger transaction.
Reuters could not confirm this.
