Prisoners including Evan Gershkovich were transferred from the Lefortovo prison in Moscow to the capital’s Vnukovo airport on Aug. 1 for a flight to Turkey.
The spy unit that arrested a Wall Street Journal reporter is
leading the biggest campaign of internal repression since the Stalin era
Dec. 12, 2024 9:00 pm ET
ABOARD A RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL JET—The spy at the front of the cabin drew open the curtain.
Wearing a sand-colored jacket and brown shoes, with a salt-and-pepper goatee, the man had spent the past few hours organizing the final preparations for the largest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War. Now, as the pilots started the engines to take off for an airport in Turkey’s capital, he came out to look at the 16 prisoners he was escorting to freedom, a haul of Americans, Russians and Germans in their first hours fresh from jails and penal colonies.
Scanning the passengers, he locked his eyes squarely on one of those prisoners—me. He said nothing, staring in silence for nearly a minute. Then he turned and walked back to his curtained-off section of the presidential jet. I was left to wonder about this man at the helm of the exchange, who appeared to hold my fate in his hands.
