How moving it was, watching the three Americans arrive, Thursday night, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland--coming home, after their cruel detentions in Russian prisons: the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich (arrested in March 2023); Paul Whelan, the former U.S. Marine (jailed since 2018); and Alsu Kurmasheva, the Russian-American journalist (at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, arrested in June 2023).
All told, 16 individuals were released by Russia this week (including one prisoner held in Belarus); those released, in the prisoner exchange, included dissidents associated with the late Alexei Navalny, and other human rights and opposition figures. The thirteen other prisoners released by Russia were taken in by Germany.
One of course hopes that further prisoner releases, involving Americans still held by Russia, will take place soon.
One Russian-American citizen still detained by Russia is 33 year-old Ksenia Karelina of California. She was in Russia in February, visiting family members, and was arrested after making a donation--just over $50--to a charity based in New York providing aid to Ukraine. She has been charged with treason.
American Marc Fogel, 63, has lived in Russia since 2012, teaching at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He was arrested in 2021 at a Russian airport for possessing a small amount of medical marijuana, which had been prescribed in the United States. In 2022, he was sentenced to fourteen years in prison.
(This piece was edited, not long after its posting.)
