SAN ANTONIO — The three U.S. citizens freed from Russia on Thursday as part of the largest prisoner swap between the two countries in post-Soviet history landed in San Antonio for a medical evaluation early Friday morning.
Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva are among the 24 people freed from Russian imprisonment as part of the latest exchange between Washington and Moscow in the past two years, following a December 2022 trade that brought WNBA star Brittney Griner back to the U.S. in exchange for notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
Russia, meanwhile, secured the freedom of its own nationals convicted of serious crimes in the West.
The trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The sprawling deal, the latest in a series of prisoner swaps negotiated between Russia and the U.S. in the last two years but the first to require significant concessions from other countries.
What happens next
The trio of Americans currently on their way stateside were joined on the plane by medics, a psychologist and U.S. government officials, according to CNN. The plane first landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Thursday night, where the newly freed citizens reunited with family and met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Officials with the State Department told KENS 5 they then boarded a flight to San Antonio where are receiving "post-isolation support" at Brooke Army Medical Center--typical protocol for when detained Americans return home. They landed at Kelly Field around 3:30 a.m.
Treatment will be tailored to each American's needs. Questionable living conditions while in Russian captivity has led to concerns about their physical and mental health.
“Especially if they’ve had medical problems pre-existing, maybe high blood pressure, heart disease, who knows. But how was that treated while they were imprisoned. Then probably a good discussion around did they develop any new problems, especially any infections while over there," said Dr. Ralph Riviello, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UT Health San Antonio and head of the emergency department at University Health.
Dr. Riviello stressed the importance of the BAMC team focusing their attention on evaluating the former prisoners' mental health as well.
"Mental health is huge so probably a whole battery of interviews, psychological tests out there and then probably just as important will be screening for PTSD," Riviello said.
Griner, a Houston native, was at the Alamo City military hospital for about a week upon her release in December 2022. A year later, six Americans released from Venezuela in a swap with the U.S. government also arrived in San Antonio to be evaluated.
Who are the released prisoners?
Paul Whelan, a corporate security consultant and former U.S. Marine, had been in Russian custody since 2018 after being convicted of espionage charges. The U.S. government considered those charges baseless.
Gershkovich is a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested on March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. He had appeared more than a dozen times in Russian courtrooms since his detention. His family said in a statement that they “can’t wait give him the biggest hug and see his sweet and brave face up close.”
Wall Street Journal reporters broke into applause after his release was announced in the New York newsroom. Gershkovich’s photo was projected onto a screen along with #IStandWithEvan, the hashtag supporters around the world used to call for his freedom.
Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian national, was arrested in 2023 in her hometown of Kazan, where she was visiting her ailing mother. The Prague-based editor for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service was accused of not self-reporting as a “foreign agent” and was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military—charges rejected by her family and employer.
Kurmasheva, 47, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.