Russia shows footage of arrests of swapped US prisoners

AFP | Moscow, Russia

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com   

Russia yesterday for the first time released footage of security forces swooping in to arrest Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and ex-Marine Paul Whelan, who were returned last week in a landmark swap.

The footage shows security officers roughly grabbing Gershkovich around the neck in what looks like a bar or restaurant. Gershkovich, a 32-year-old US citizen, was detained in March 2023 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and later sentenced to 16 years in a penal colony for espionage.

He pleaded not guilty and the case was condemned by the White House and his employer as fabricated. He, along with Whelan and others, was returned to the US on Thursday in the largest such prisoner swap since the Cold War, involving 24 prisoners.

The video and audio footage of Gershkovich was posted on social media by Kremlin-funded RT channel.

AFP could not verify the footage’s authenticity. RT wrote on Telegram that the footage was “specially for Western sceptics” and that it allegedly showed that “the handover of secret information on Russia’s military production is openly discussed”. Gershkovich was shown meeting a contact in a restaurant with his notebook, pens and phone on the table.

The footage was filmed from various angles.

In an audio recording that appears to have been edited, a voice purported to be Gershkovich’s asks in Russian: “How shall we best do this?” and outlines how he plans to source the story.

The other man says: “Please be very careful because this is secret information.” The video shows a group of men rushing into the basement bar. The security officers seize Gershkovich, one grabbing him roughly by the head, and handcuff him with arms behind his back. While he is not shown resisting, he is placed face down on the floor and one man knees him in the back.

REN TV, a pro-Kremlin channel, also posted video footage of Paul Whelan washing his hands in a toilet which it said was in Moscow’s central Metropole Hotel. A man comes up and gives him something small which he puts in his pocket.

REN TV said it was allegedly a memory card with “secret information about the staff makeup of the FSB” security service. Whelan, who has US, UK, Canadian and Irish citizenships, was detained in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in 2020 on a charge of espionage.