The Insider reveals who Russia received and released in exchange with US and Germany

The agency reports that Russia and Belarus have released several political prisoners, including:

• Ilya Yashin – Moscow court sentenced him to 8.5 years in a general regime colony for spreading "false information" about the Russian army, which was at that time the strictest penalty under this charge.
• Vladimir Kara-Murza – Activist and publicist sentenced to 25 years in a colony for spreading "false information" about the army, collaborating with an "undesirable organization", and treason.
• Alsu Kurmasheva – Radio Free Europe journalist sentenced because she did not inform Russia that she was a potential "foreign agent."
• Andrei Pivovarov – Former head of Open Russia. He faced criminal charges for involvement in the activities of an “undesirable organization.”
• Oleg Orlov – The 70-year-old human rights defender and head of Memorial faced criminal charges in 2023. During the investigation, he was accused of writing an article where he described Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “the heaviest blow to the future of the country.”
• Alexandra Skochilenko – Arrested for spreading "false information" about the Russian armed forces in a Perekrestok store by replacing product price tags with messages about civilians killed in the shelling of the Mariupol Drama Theater.
• Lilia Chanysheva – Former head of Alexei Navalny’s headquarters in Ufa. She was the first figure charged with creating an "extremist community" after the Anti-Corruption Foundation and Navalny’s headquarters were recognized as such.
• Ksenia Fadeeva – Former head of Navalny’s headquarters in Tomsk. Sentenced to 9 years in a colony for “organizing the activities of an extremist community using her official position”.
• Evan Gershkovich – Wall Street Journal journalist sentenced in Russia to 16 years in a colony for espionage.
• Rico Krieger – Former German Red Cross employee. Detained in Belarus and faced 6 charges, including illegal actions with firearms, rendering transport or communication routes unusable, creation of or participation in an extremist formation, agent activity, mercenary activity, and an act of terrorism. On July 30, 2024, Alexander Lukashenko pardoned Krieger.
• Kevin Lik – An 18-year-old who became the first student convicted of treason in Russia.
• Demuri Voronin – A dual Russian-German citizen and political scientist. He was involved in the case of journalist Ivan Safronov and was accused of receiving information from Safronov and selling it to foreign intelligence agencies.
• Vadim Ostanin – Former head of Navalny’s Barnaul headquarters.
• Patrick Schobel – German citizen arrested in January 2024 at Pulkovo airport with six jelly candies that contained marijuana.
• Paul Whelan – American serviceman and former Marine arrested in 2018 when he arrived in Russia for a former colleague’s wedding. In June 2020, he was found guilty of espionage against Russia and sentenced to 16 years in a strict regime colony.
• Herman Moyzhes – Lawyer and cycling activist. A dual citizen of Germany and Russia, accused of state treason.

Who has Russia received?

In the exchange, Russia received several individuals, including:

• Vadim Krasikov – An FSB killer involved in several contract killings, including that of businessman Alexander Kozlov in Karelia in 2007, businessman Albert Nazranov in Moscow 2015, and Chechen refugee Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin in 2019. After Khangoshvili’s killing, Russia denied any involvement, but The Insider uncovered Krasikov's true identity and documents linking him to Russian intelligence. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany. Subsequently, Putin stopped hiding his connection to Krasikov, calling the killer a "patriot" and publicly expressing his desire to exchange him for Evan Gershkovich.

• Artem and Anna Dultsevs – A couple who lived in Slovenia under the aliases Ludwig Gisch and Maria Rosa Mayer Muñoz, pretending to be Argentine citizens. They were arrested in Ljubljana. Based on their biography, they are likely to be working for the Main Intelligence Directorate.

• Pavel Rubtsov – A GRU agent who posed as Spanish journalist Pablo Gonzalez. He was detained by Poland at the Polish-Ukrainian border and accused of espionage for Russia.

• Roman Seleznev – A Russian hacker sentenced to 27 years in the US for computer fraud and identity theft.

• Vladislav Klyushin – A Boston court in the US found him guilty of insider trading and sentenced him to 9 years in prison.

• Mikhail Mikushin – In May 2022, a court in Norway charged him with espionage.

• Vadim Konoshchenok – One of the participants in the Serniya smuggling network, which illegally exported high-tech equipment from the US and supplied it to Russian state companies through EU countries.

We previously reported that Russia released a WSJ journalist and a convicted US Marine as part of the exchange.

Meanwhile, RBC-Ukraine’s material provides more details on the case of German citizen Rico Krieger and how he managed to secure a pardon.