More to follow

Is a major prisoner exchange imminent?

The "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was imprisoned in Russia, is released.(Bild: AP/Uncredited)

The Turkish presidential office has confirmed a large-scale prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries. The Turkish secret service MIT had organized the exchange of 26 prisoners, including the US journalist Evan Gershkovich, but apparently also the notorious Tiergarten murderer Vadim Krasikov.

A total of 13 people were brought to Germany, three to the USA and ten in return to Russia. Der Spiegel reported that planes took off from both Russia and Germany towards Ankara around midday. An exchange is to take place there in the afternoon.

Prominent prisoners on the list
According to the "Spiegel" report, Gershkovich is on the plane from Moscow. Russian Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany in December 2021 for the murder of a Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin's Tiergarten park, is also on a plane from Germany.

The "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was imprisoned in Russia, will be released.(Bild: AP/Uncredited)

In addition to these two, other Russian agents and hackers are to be exchanged for German citizens and Russian opposition figures in Ankara, according to Der Spiegel.

The online service Flightradar24 had shown on Thursday morning that a Russian government plane, which had been used in an earlier prisoner exchange, flew from Moscow to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and returned to Moscow from there.

Pervy Otdel, an organization that specializes in defending Russian treason and espionage cases, said the flight could mean that a prisoner exchange had taken place on the Polish border.

Hope also for Paul Whelan
As CNN reported, not only Gershkovich, who was imprisoned in March 2023, is to be released, but also former US soldier Paul Whelan. According to information from Turkey, the exchange is being coordinated by the Turkish secret service.

When asked about a major prisoner exchange, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "I still have no comment on this." Such exchanges are usually kept secret until they take place.

In addition to Gershkovich and Whelan, the so-called Tiergarten murderer Vadim Krassikov, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin's Tiergarten, could possibly be affected by this in Germany. Germany is pressing for the release of German Rico K., who was sentenced to death in Belarus and pardoned on Tuesday.

Numerous prisoners in Russia have disappeared from the scene
In Russia, several prisoners have disappeared from the scene in recent weeks, such as the Russian-British dissident Vladimir Kara-Mursa. Previously, at least seven Russian dissidents had been unexpectedly transferred from their prisons. This was interpreted as a sign of an imminent prisoner exchange. The lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian imprisoned in the USA, refused to confirm the whereabouts of his client "until the exchange has taken place".

The lawyer, Arkady Bukh, was quoted as saying that he had been told by lawyers representing people detained in Russia that they were "on their way" to unknown locations. Media reports also stated that four Russians imprisoned in the USA had disappeared from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons' prisoner database, including Vinnik.