The swap involved multiple countries and included notable figures detained in Russia and the West.
Tuesday's Cabinet meeting in Warsaw, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, covered the details of the operation, presented by Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak behind closed doors, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
This information, classified as "secret," highlighted Poland’s pivotal role in the negotiations that facilitated the exchange between the United States and Russia, reporters were told.
The extensive operation exchanged 24 prisoners from countries including the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus, along with two children.
Among those released were high-profile detainees such as Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition figure with British citizenship; Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine with multiple citizenships; and Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, who had been held by Russia since March 2023 on what were widely seen as trumped-up charges.
Poland’s contribution was the inclusion of Pawel Rubtsov, a Russian military intelligence officer detained on the Polish-Ukrainian border in 2022, according to media reports.
Rubtsov, who had masqueraded as a Spanish journalist named Pablo Gonzalez, was alleged to have used his cover to gather information in Ukraine for Russian security services and to infiltrate Russian opposition groups.
The Polish prime minister last Thursday publicly acknowledged the successful completion of the operation via the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
"A prisoner exchange operation has concluded through which heroes of the Russian opposition and citizens of NATO countries have left Russia; the operation was made possible by the involvement of our country; I thank the president and the security services for their exemplary cooperation," Tusk wrote on X.
The exchange was also commended by U.S. President Joe Biden, who thanked Poland and other assisting nations, including Germany, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey, for their "brave and courageous decisions" in facilitating this significant prisoner swap.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR/PAP
