The European Union has said it was “relieved” by the release and transfer to freedom outside Russia and Belarus of a number of political prisoners, including EU citizens, facilitated with the help of Turkey.
As part of yesterday’s major exchange of a total of 26 people between Russia, Belarus and the West, Minsk released Rico Krieger, a German citizen who had been sentenced to death and pardoned earlier by Lukashenko.
“The released activists, human rights defenders and journalists have been unjustly persecuted and imprisoned by Russian and Belarusian regimes for political reasons and held in intolerable conditions,” EU High Representative Josep Borrell said in a statement. “Political prisoners and all those still unjustly detained in Russian and Belarusian prisons must be immediately and unconditionally released.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he welcomed the release of “wrongfully detained Allied citizens and Russian political prisoners.”
Praising close cooperation between NATO members for this effort, he said: “The right to peaceful opposition and freedom of the media are vital for any functioning society.”
The organization’s spokeswoman Farah Dakhlallah also called for all those still “wrongfully detained” to be released.
Three Americans who were freed in a prisoner swap deal with Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, have arrived back on US soil.
Mr Gershkovich, 32, was one of 16 prisoners swapped for eight Russian prisoners in what has been described as the biggest exchange since the end of the Cold War between Russia and the West.
The exchange at an airfield in Turkey also included the release of former US marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.
After touching down at Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, Mr Gershkovich, Ms Kurmasheva and Mr Whelan emerged from the jet to cheers from those on the tarmac.
All three were greeted by US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris before they embraced their families.
Speaking ahead of their return, Mr Biden welcomed their release and declared: “Their brutal ordeal is over.”
He praised the role played by America’s allies, particularly Germany and Slovenia, and hailed the release of Mr Whelan, Mr Gershkovich and Ms Kurmasheva, as well as leading Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, as a “feat of diplomacy”.
The three released Americans were then sent to the Brooke Army Medical Centre in Texas for a medical check-up.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin personally greeted the released Russians with bouquets of flowers at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport.
He embraced them warmly on a red carpet and said they would be given state awards.
Among those returned to Moscow in addition to Krasikov was a Russian couple, convicted of spying in Slovenia, who returned to Russia with their two children.
Both Nato and the European Union welcomed the release which it said was mediated by Turkey.
