(NewsNation) — The 26-person prisoner swap between Russia, Belarus, the United States, Slovenia, Germany, Poland and Norway was historic, but it sees Vladimir Putin’s nation receive eight key figures.
While President Joe Biden was praised for the release of former Marine Paul Whelan and reporters Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, Republicans have also expressed concern that Russia could benefit and spoken more broadly about the U.S.’s policy toward prisoner swaps.
So, who is Russia receiving in the largest prisoner swap between the Eastern and Western world since the Cold War?
Vadim Krasikov
The 58-year-old was released from Germany, where he had been held in custody since 2019 when he was convicted of murder.
Krasikov was sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting dead Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a Chechen rebel leader.
Despite initial protestations otherwise, Russia has revealed he was an agent in the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB.
Roman Seleznev
Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment for his involvement in a credit card hacking scheme that resulted in $169 million in losses.
Seleznev stole credit card numbers from the point-of-sale systems of small business across the United States.
From there, he would sell the details of the credit cards to others across the internet. He was sentenced in a federal court in 2017.
Vadim Konoshchenok
Konoshchenok was arrested in Estonia in 2022, accused of smuggling military weapons and ammunition, among other items.
According to U.S. federal prosecutors, approximately 375 pounds of ammunition originating from the United States was found by Estonian authorities in a warehouse used by Konoshchenok.
He was extradited to the U.S. in 2023 and accused to be an agent for the FSB.
Vladislav Klyushin
Klyushin was convicted of hacking into the corporate databases of U.S. companies and sentenced to nine years imprisonment.
According to the Justice Department, Klyushin was operating a “hack-to-trade scheme” that netted $93 million.
Klyushin was arrested in Switzerland in 2021 before being extradited to America later in the year.
Pavel Rubtsov
Also known as Pablo González Yagüe, Rubtsov was born in Russia before moving to Spain at the age of 9.
A Spanish citizen, Rubtsov was arrested in Poland, near the Ukraine border in 2022, accused of being a spy for Russia.
The 42-year-old denied thee charges. Rubtsov had been held in Poland on espionage charges since his arrest.
Anna Dultseva and Artem Dultsev
The pair were being held in Slovenia and pleaded guilty to charges of espionage and falsifying documents Wednesday.
It is reported that the married couple are the parents of the two minors also part of the prison exchange.
Dultsev and Dultseva had posed as an Argentine couple. The New York Times reported the children went into foster care following their parents’ arrest in 2023.
Mikhail Mikushin
Another living a double life, Mikhail Mikushin posed as a Brazilian researcher under the name Jose Assis Giammaria at the University of Tromsø in Norway.
Mikushin was arrested in Norway in 2022 under the accusation that he was garnering sensitive information for Russia as an agent for the Russian foreign military agency, GRU.
He had been in custody in Norway since his arrest.
