MOSCOW: Signs of a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Belarus on one side and the United States, Germany, Slovenia and Britain on the other increased on Thursday, but there was no official confirmation that it could be the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War.
Fox News reports that imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is set to return to the United States in a prisoner exchange that could take place as soon as Thursday.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 showed that a special Russian government plane, previously used in a previous prisoner exchange involving both the United States and Russia, flew from Moscow to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave bordering Lithuania and Poland, before heading back to the Russian capital.
Pervy Otdel (First Department), an association specializing in protecting people in Russian treason and espionage cases, said the flight could mean a prisoner exchange was taking place on the Polish border. Reuters could not confirm this.
Former US Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-British dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza, both imprisoned in Russia, have disappeared suddenly, their lawyers said on Monday, after at least seven other Russian dissidents were abruptly transferred out of prison in recent days.
On Thursday, unconfirmed Russian media reported that another dissident, opposition activist Vadim Ostanin, had been transferred from a Siberian prison to Moscow.
Russian online media outlet Agenstvo reported that in recent days, at least six special Russian government aircraft have flown to and from regions with prisons holding political dissidents.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian man detained in the United States, declined to confirm his client's whereabouts to state news agency RIA on Wednesday “until the exchange takes place.” But RIA quoted Vinnik's lawyer Arkady Bukh as saying he had been informed by lawyers representing the detainees in Russia that they were “on the way” to an unknown location.
RIA also reported that four Russians detained in the US have disappeared from a prisoner database operated by the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, identifying them as Vinnik Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenok and Vladislav Klushin.
The US also detains at least two other Russian citizens, Vladimir Dunaev and Roman Seleznev, who were convicted of serious cybercrimes and could be arrested as well.
The Kremlin has declined to say whether an exchange will take place, as has the Russian embassy in Washington, and there has been no comment from Western countries. Such exchanges are usually shrouded in secrecy until they actually happen.
Russian dissidents whose supporters say they have been suddenly relocated in recent days include opposition politician Ilya Yashin, human rights activists Oleg Orlov and Daniil Krinary, who were convicted of secretly cooperating with foreign governments.
Others who have suddenly disappeared from the prison system include German-Russian citizen Kevin Lik, who was convicted of treason, opposition activists Liliya Chanicheva and Ksenia Fadeva, and anti-war artist Sasha Skochillenko.
Ivan Pavlov, a prominent Russian human rights lawyer now living in Prague and founder of the Pervy Otdel group, said the disappearance of so many people with similar profiles indicated that authorities were gathering them, likely in Moscow, for use in exchange.
He said President Vladimir Putin would have to pardon them before the exchange, which is a necessary formality. “Important Stories” news agency drew attention to the fact that Putin signed several secret decrees on July 30, according to a report on the government website, which indicated that they could pardon prisoners.
In December 2022, Russia traded basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in prison for having e-cigarette cartridges filled with cannabis oil in her luggage, for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the United States.
The largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War took place in 2010, involving a total of 14 people.
The West views prisoners as political prisoners.
In Western countries, governments and activists view government dissidents as unjustly detained political prisoners. For different reasons, Moscow has designated these dissidents as dangerous extremists.
The exchange is expected to be attended by two journalists.
On July 19, Gershkovic was swiftly found guilty of espionage charges, which he denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison, and Russia has confirmed talks on his exchange.
Alsou Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was also found guilty in a secret trial on the same day and sentenced to six and a half years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian military. She denies the charges.
Other US citizens detained in Russia include former schoolteacher Mark Vogel, who was convicted of possessing marijuana, which he says he used for medical reasons.
Meanwhile in Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin, pardoned German national Rico Krieger, who was sentenced to death on terror charges, on Tuesday, in a move that was rushed and caught the attention of state media.
Among those Moscow has signaled it wants is Vadim Krasikov, a Russian who is serving a life sentence in Germany for killing a Chechen-Georgian political dissident in a Berlin park.
A Slovenian court on Wednesday sentenced two Russians to prison on charges of espionage and using fake identity documents and said they would face deportation, state news agency STA reported. Slovenian television reported that the action was part of a wider exchange of opinions.
Reuters could not independently confirm this.
