US reporter Gershkovich among 26 freed in Russia prisoner deal

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00:00These details still to be confirmed. The 26th number is slightly higher than what I've been

00:06having confirmed to be by my sources. So that is still to be determined. But yes, at least three

00:14Russian, sorry, three U.S. nationals believed to be among these people being exchanged. The top

00:20lines really of it are Paul Whelan and Evan Guskovich, that being confirmed just in the last

00:26short while by the Turkish presidency itself. Of course, these two prisoners have been two

00:32people that the U.S. has been trying to get back for some time. Paul Whelan has been in detention

00:39in Moscow, in Russia rather, since 2018. He is a former U.S. Marine who was acting as the

00:46director of global security for a car firm based in Michigan when he was arrested on what the

00:53Kremlin says were espionage charges. Those are charges that he denies and the U.S. denies as

00:58well. He's been in prison ever since 2018. And Evan Guskovich as well has also been in jail

01:07in Russia since 2023, a Wall Street Journal reporter who the Russians claim was taking

01:15information about a tank factory and giving that to the CIA. That, of course, also being

01:21denied by Evan, by also the Wall Street Journal and the United States as well.

01:26But this has been a key point in U.S. diplomacy for the last couple of years of the Biden

01:32administration. Biden, in the past, if you look at the hostages that were taken,

01:37the American citizens taken by Hamas, he has made it a point to make sure that all American hostages

01:43do come home. And that is something that also extends to Americans who have been wrongly

01:48imprisoned abroad as well. So, of course, this is a bit of a tit-for-tat game that the United

01:53States has been playing with Russia, not just over these three people that we are expecting

01:59to come back. I'm told there may also be another person included in that list as well.

02:05But also, if you look to the past as well, there have been exchanges, two exchanges in the last

02:12two years. The most high profile before this one was, of course, for Brittany Greiner, the

02:16basketball star who was exchanged for a Russian arms dealer. So, that taking place in December

02:222022. So, there is a history of this between the U.S. and Russia, despite, obviously,

02:26ongoing tensions, mainly over the war in Ukraine. A statement posted online a short while ago,

02:33the Radio Free Europe stating that a journalist working for the broadcaster,

02:40Alzu Kurmasheva, would be released as part of the deal. That's another name to watch

02:47out for. I wanted to ask you on this, Fraser Jackson, any word on whether some of the other

02:55big names that had been mentioned, such as we talked about it at the outset,

03:03some prominent opposition figures in Russia could be in that mix?

03:11Yeah, it's possible. There are, of course, a lot of political prisoners that have been taken by

03:19the Russians over the course of the last couple of years. Of course, Alexei Navalny was arguably

03:24the biggest name on that list, but of course, he died whilst he was in prison. But there are

03:31various people who work for his company that have been detained by Russian authorities.

03:36And of course, there are some other high-profile critics of the Kremlin as well. They've also

03:42been arrested by the Russians. I'm thinking of Vladimir Kozmara, who's also a Russian national,

03:50but is also a British national as well. He is somebody who has said has been poisoned by the

03:56Kremlin multiple times with the nerve agent Novichok, and he has been in detention since

04:02being taken from his house in Moscow just a couple of years ago. So there are some

04:08high-profile names that we're going to be looking out for. Of course, we don't have

04:11the actual list of names of people who are going to be included in this prisoner exchange,

04:17but we'll get more details when it is made officially confirmed.

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