See who’s who in the prisoner swap between Russia and the West

American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan were among 24 detainees released as part of a complex prisoner swap between Russia, the US and other Western nations.

A number of Russian dissidents were also released, and in exchange Moscow secured the return of a former FSB colonel convicted of murder, as well as several individuals accused of espionage or cybercrime.

Here’s what we know about who was released.

Russians released as part of deal

Vadim Krasikov, 58 years old

Krasikov, a former high-ranking FSB colonel serving a life sentence in a German prison, was at the top of Moscow’s list of Russian prisoners he wanted to exchange.

Krasikov was convicted of the 2019 murder of former Chechen fighter Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili in Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten.

The German court that convicted Krasikov in 2021 said he acted on behalf of the Russian state, shooting Khangoshvili “execution-style” in broad daylight. Khangoshvili fought against Russian forces during the Chechen wars and later moved to Georgia, where he survived several assassination attempts. Wanted in Russia on terrorism charges, he was a thorn in the side of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader and close ally of Putin.

The Kremlin has made no secret of its desire to bring Krasikov back to Russia, asking for him to be released in 2022 alongside Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year sentence in the US, in exchange for Whelan and WNBA star Brittney Griner.

When the US failed to release Krasikov, Moscow refused to release Whelan, although the Biden administration offered several other people in his place.

Earlier this year, a top aide to Alexey Navalny said the Russian opposition leader was days away from being swapped for Krasikov before he died mysteriously in a Russian penal colony. CNN was unable to independently confirm the plans.

Vadim Konoshenok, 48 years old

Extradited to the U.S. from Estonia in July 2023, Konoshchenok faced conspiracy charges over his role in a global procurement and money laundering network on behalf of the Russian government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement that Konoshchenok is a Russian national with alleged ties to the FSB, Russia’s intelligence agency. He is accused of being part of a scheme to supply Russia with sensitive American-made electronics and munitions in violation of U.S. export controls, economic sanctions and other criminal laws.

Vladislav Klyushin, 43 years old

A Russian businessman, Klyushin, was sentenced in Boston last year to nine years in prison for his role in what U.S. authorities called “an elaborate hacking scheme that raised approximately $93 million through securities trading based on confidential corporate information stolen from U.S. computer networks.”

Klyushin was arrested in Sion, Switzerland, in March 2021 and extradited to the United States in December 2021. In addition to his prison sentence, he was also fined more than $34 million and ordered to pay restitution.

Roman Seleznev, 40

Roman Seleznev is a convicted hacker and credit card fraudster who was serving a 27-year sentence in the US. Russian authorities had previously requested that Seleznev – known as Track2, Bulba and Ncux 3 – be part of the swap for Griner and Bout in 2022. The US agreed to this, but the deal fell apart when it was unable to offer Krasikov as well.

Seleznev was arrested in the Maldives in 2014. He was extradited to the US and convicted in April 2017 of hacking into point-of-sale computers to steal and sell credit card numbers to the criminal underworld.

In November of that year, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for his role in a $50 million cyber fraud ring and for defrauding banks of $9 million through a hacking scheme. The two sentences were to run concurrently.

Artem Dultsev (age unknown)

Artem Dultsev is a Russian spy who lived undercover in Slovenia, posing as an IT entrepreneur named Ludvig Gish.

He pleaded guilty to espionage in a Ljubljana court on Wednesday and was sentenced to more than a year and a half in prison, which the court said was equivalent to the time served. According to a court statement, he would be deported to Russia and banned from entering Slovenia for five years.

Anna Dultseva (age unknown)

Anna Dultseva pleaded guilty to espionage alongside Dultsev on Wednesday. Also a Russian spy, she posed as an art dealer and gallery owner and is believed to be married to Dultsev. She went by the name Maria Rosa Mayer Munos. Like Dultsev, she was sentenced to prison and deportation.

Mikhail Mikushin (age unknown)

Mikushin is an arrested Russian spy who operated in Norway in 2022. He worked at the University of Tromsø, in the Arctic Circle, pretending to be a Brazilian researcher.

Pavel Rubtsov (age unknown)

A Russian spy who was living in Poland under the false pretense of being a Spanish journalist named Pablo Gonzales was arrested in February 2022, according to Poland’s state news agency PAP.

American citizens and residents released

Evan Gershkovich, 32

The Wall Street Journal reporter was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage in July, becoming the first American journalist to be arrested on espionage charges in Russia since the Cold War.

The US government, Gershkovich’s newspaper and his supporters denounced the trial as a sham.

Paul Whelan, 54

Former US Marine Whelan spent nearly six years in Russian prisons following his arrest in Moscow in December 2018.

He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison on espionage charges that he and the U.S. government vehemently deny. He said he was in the country for a friend’s wedding.

Like Gershkovich, Whelan has been designated as wrongfully detained by the U.S. State Department. He is also an Irish, British and Canadian citizen.

Alsosu Kurmasheva, 47 years old

The Russian-American journalist was sentenced to six and a half years in prison after being charged with spreading false information about the Russian military.

Kurmasheva was sentenced on the same day that a court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg sentenced Gershkovich.

Vladimir Kara Murza, 42 years old

A prominent Russian opposition politician and human rights defender, Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason after publicly condemning Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

He is a permanent resident of the US and holds dual citizenship of Russia and the UK.

He was initially detained in 2022, hours after an interview with CNN in which he criticized the “murderous regime” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He has been moved several times in recent months and was transferred to a prison hospital earlier this month. His lawyers have been repeatedly denied access to him.

German citizens released

Rico Krieger, 30 or 31 years old

The German citizen was sentenced to death in Belarus in June after being accused of terrorism and mercenary activities.

Little is known about Krieger. The Viasna Human Rights Center group said Krieger was an employee of the German Red Cross. Belarusian authorities said he was a German citizen born in 1993.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as an emergency medical technician for the German Red Cross and as an armed security officer for the US Embassy in Berlin.

Krieger was pardoned by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on July 30, according to Lukashenko’s office.

Kevin Lik, 18 years old

Kevin Lik, who holds dual citizenship of Russia and Germany, was convicted of high treason in December 2023, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.

TASS said Lik was accused of photographing and filming military equipment and personnel at the Maikop garrison in Russia. The court said he intended to provide the information to German intelligence.

Demuri (Dieter) Voronin (age unknown)

Voronin was accused of aiding Ivan Safronov, a former journalist and adviser to the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos who is accused of treason, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS.

According to the indictment, cited by Russian state media, Demuri Voronin, a German citizen, facilitated Safronov’s cooperation with the German Federal Intelligence Service.

Safronov was sentenced to 22 years in prison and Voronin to 13 years and 3 months, according to Russia’s state news agency RIA.

Herman Moyzhes (age unknown)

A lawyer and cycling activist, Moyzhes was charged earlier this month with treason for helping Russian citizens obtain residence permits in Europe, according to TASS.

His arrest was criticized as politically motivated by the German Jewish community.

Patrick Schoebel (38 or 39)

Schoebel was detained at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport in January for carrying a bag containing cannabis gummy candies, according to the press service of the St. Petersburg courts.

Russian opposition prisoners released

Ilya Yashin, 41

Kremlin critic Ilya Yashin was sentenced to eight years and six months for spreading “false information” about the Russian military in December 2022.

Yashin, a close ally of the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, was convicted of spreading “false” statements about the circumstances of the killings of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops in Bucha, a town north of Kiev.

Russia criminalized criticism of the military after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year. The court said he would serve his sentence “in a strict regime correctional colony.”

Alexandra Skochilenko, 33

The Russian artist was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2023 after replacing price tags with anti-war messages at a St. Petersburg grocery store as an act of protest.

In his closing statement in court before the verdict, Skochilenko questioned the apparent threat posed by his actions, stating: “How little faith does our prosecutor have in our state and society if he believes that our state and public safety can be destroyed by five small pieces of paper?”

Oleg Orlov, 71 years old

The human rights defender and former head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization Memorial has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for speaking out against Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Lilia Chanysheva, 42 years old

A former employee of Navalny’s organization, Chanysheva was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in June 2023 after being found guilty of “organizing an extremist community.”

In April, the Supreme Court of Bashkortostan increased his sentence to nine and a half years.

Ksenia Fadeeva, 32 years old

Another former Navalny associate, Fadeeva, was sentenced to nine years in prison in December 2023. She was convicted of organizing the activities of an extremist group using her official position and participating in a non-profit organization that violated citizens’ rights.

Vadim Ostanin (age unknown)

Another former employee of Alexei Navalny’s foundation, Ostanin was sentenced to nine years in prison on extremism charges.

Andrey Pivovarov, 42 years old

An opposition activist and human rights defender, Pivovarov served as head of the now-banned Open Russia movement. He was sentenced to four years in a penal colony in July 2022, according to Amnesty International.