Summary
Three US citizens imprisoned in Russia are expected to be released today under a major prisoner exchange deal
Reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan, and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva will be released under the deal agreed by the Biden administration, a senior US official confirms
Others are believed to be part of the exchange, which is expected to take place later today
The exchange will involve 24 prisoners held in Russia, the US, Germany and three other Western countries
Rumours that a swap was imminent emerged after reports that several notable prisoners in Russia had recently gone missing from the jails they were held in
Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment by a Russian court last month.
Kurmasheva, who holds both US and Russian citizenship, was charged with spreading false information about the Russian army.
Her colleagues at the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) said the mother of two was arrested last October for failing to register as a foreign agent when visiting her family in the central Russian city of Kazan.
Kurmasheva has denied any wrongdoing, and Stephen Capus, RFE/RL president and CEO, told the AP news agency that her conviction was "a mockery of justice".
There is a long tradition of swaps like this.
One of the largest between the United States and Russia came in the summer of 2010, when 10 people arrested in the US alleged to be deep cover spies for Russia were swapped at an airport in Vienna for four individuals who had been convicted in Russia of spying for MI6 and the CIA.
One of those people was Sergei Skripal, who Russian spies then tried to kill with the novichok nerve agent in the UK in 2018.
In that case, the US had the upper hand as the Russians were desperate for the release of their spies who had been arrested in America.
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