Reports: Russia releasing detained Americans Gershkovich and Whelan

The outlet reported Thursday morning that the two men, jailed on charges they and the U.S. deny, are headed to locations outside of Russia. 

Bloomberg stated that U.S. and its allies will return prisoners to Russia as part of the deal, which has yet to be made public. 

It is not yet clear what prisoners will be returned to Russia by western countries as part of the swap.

It is reportedly the largest multi-country prisoner swap since the Cold War.

Whelan, 53, a corporate security director from Michigan, was detained in Moscow in 2018 and convicted of espionage in 2020. He is serving a 16-year sentence on the espionage conviction which both he and Washington say is baseless.

U.S. officials said that Russia refused to consider including Whelan in the December 2022 prisoner swap deal that freed women’s basketball star Brittney Griner in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, calling it a “one or none” decision.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter and the first Western journalist arrested on espionage charges in post-Soviet Russia, was detained in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains, while on a reporting trip in March 2023.

Like Whelan, Russia charged Gershkovich with espionage, which he, the Journal, and the U.S. deny.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s office accused Gershkovich last month of “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA about a military equipment plant 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg. The plant has been considered a pro-Kremlin symbol since one of its managers publicly denounced Moscow’s anti-government protests in 2011-12.

Other U.S. citizens in Russian custody include a musician, an engineer, a staff sergeant, and a journalist for the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.