Update: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan were released Thursday by Russia as part of a major, multi-nation swap of two dozen prisoners. Our original story continues below.
Amid reports of a potential prisoner swap between the U.S., Russia and other countries, questions over whether Paul Whelan will return to the U.S. surfaced once again.
According to NBC News, citing a senior Biden administration official, a prisoner swap was underway Thursday between the United States, Russia, and other countries.
Details on who was included in the swap weren't immediately known, but two high-profile U.S. prisoners in Russia include Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich and Whelan, a former U.S. Marine.
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Whelan's name made headlines in 2022 when he wasn't included in a swap that saw WNBA star Brittney Griner freed from Russian custody. Griner's family was quick to point out Whelan's absence from the deal and call for his return.
So who is Whelan and why was he taken prisoner?
Who is Paul Whelan?
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Whelan is a Michigan corporate security executive jailed for nearly four years in Russia on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless.
A former Marine who later worked as a corporate security executive, Whelan was arrested in Moscow in December 2018. Whelan, 54, was visiting Russia for a friend’s wedding.
His lawyer said Whelan was handed a flash drive that had classified information on it that he didn’t know about.
Whelan has been held in Russia since and was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison. The U.S. government also classified him as wrongfully detained.
Why wasn't he part of the Britney Griner deal in 2022?
Early reporting had indicated Whelan was part of the U.S.' original offer to Russia, which sought both Griner and Whelan in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who was serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the “merchant of death.”
Biden said at the time the U.S. hasn't given up on Whelan and "we'll never give up" fighting to get him home.
"This was not a choice of which American to bring home," Biden said. "Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Britney's."
Whelan's brother David said in a statement he was “so glad” for Griner's release but also disappointed for his family. He credited the White House with giving the Whelan family advance notice and said he did not fault officials for making the deal.
“The Biden Administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen,” he said.
Griner's wife, Cherelle Griner, acknowledged Thursday that while her family was whole again "there's so many other families who are not whole."
"[Brittney Griner] and I remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul," she said.
Who is Evan Gershkovich?
An American journalist, Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison just last month after he was found guilty of espionage in a case that his employer, The Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. government has condemned as a sham.
Gershkovich, 32, denied any wrongdoing in the case that went to trial last month in the city of Yekaterinburg, over a year after he was arrested in the southern Russian city on espionage charges.
Gershkovich had been found guilty of collecting secret information about the activities of a defense enterprise for the production and repair of military equipment on instructions from U.S. intelligence services.
