The release of British nationals Paul Whelan and Vladimir Kara-Murza as a result of the prisoner swap between Russia and the West has been hailed by Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

Mr. Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan who holds dual British nationality and has been imprisoned since 2018 on espionage charges that he and Washington have refuted, is one of the individuals whom Moscow has freed.

Mr. Kara-Murza, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and Kremlin critic with dual Russian and British nationality, was also released after completing a 25-year sentence for treason charges that were mostly believed to be politically motivated.

Mr Whelan was designated as wrongfully detained following his arrest in December 2018 after he had travelled to Russia for a wedding.

He was serving a 16-year sentence.

Their release comes as part of the biggest prisoner swap between the US and Russia in post-Soviet history.

I strongly welcome the news that Russia has released a number of prisoners today, and am particularly relieved that British nationals Vladimir Kara-Murza and Paul Whelan will soon be reunited with their families.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy

Mr Lammy said: “I strongly welcome the news that Russia has released a number of prisoners today, and am particularly relieved that British nationals Vladimir Kara-Murza and Paul Whelan will soon be reunited with their families.

“Mr Kara-Murza is a dedicated opponent of Putin’s regime. He should never have been in prison in the first place: the Russian authorities imprisoned him in life-threatening conditions because he courageously told the truth about the war in Ukraine.

“I pay tribute to his family’s courage in the face of such hardship and hope to speak to him soon.

“Paul Whelan and his family have also experienced an unimaginable ordeal. I look forward to speaking to him as he returns home to his family in the United States after over five years in detention.”

Others freed include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was jailed in 2023 and convicted in July of espionage charges that he and the US vehemently denied and called baseless; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual US-Russian citizen convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military, accusations her family and employer have rejected; associates of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny; and a German national arrested in Belarus.

The trade followed years of secretive back-channel negotiations, despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has secured the freedom of its own nationals convicted of serious crimes in the West.