There are signs that a major prisoner swap between Russia
and the West is around the corner.
According to reports, Russia may be preparing to free between
20 and 30 political prisoners and journalists in an imminent
exchange with the United States and Germany.
The room, in exchange, is being hailed as one of
the largest swaps since the end of the Cold War.
Now, while details of such exchanges remain scarce until they
actually happen,
reports suggest that several high profile political prisoners,
jail dissidents and journalists were moved from their prison cells
to unknown locations.
Those could potentially include the US journalist Evan Gershwick,
who was recently sentenced to 16 years in prison on
espionage charges.
Jailed Russian US dissident Vladimir Kara Mirza,
who's in prison for treason and other charges.
And former Moscow City Councilman Ilya Yashin.
The list of individuals being readied for exchange also includes
people linked to the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's organizations
and Russians who were jailed for criticizing the war in
Ukraine. While commenting on the possible exchange,
the White House said it was committed to returning detained
Americans in Russia.
However, it refused to get into specifics.
It is something and all you have to do is
look at his record and what he's been able to
do and getting home roughly detained Americans.
And so he's committed to that.
He will continue to be committed to that through these
the next several months,
next six months. We are careful here.
We do not negotiate in public.
We cannot negotiate in public because we want to make
sure that we get this job done,
get this work done. The last exchange between Russia and
the US happened in 2022.
When he freed American basketball player Britney Griner for arms
dealer Victor Bounce,
the upcoming prisoner exchange would be the largest since 2010.
That's when Washington and Moscow swapped ten Russian secret agents
who have been living undercover in the US for four
Russian nationals.