Russia freed US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan on Thursday as part of the biggest prisoner exchange of its kind since the end of the Cold War.

The White House said the US had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries.

The deal, negotiated in secrecy for more than a year, involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia.

Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal journalist who had been accused of collecting sensitive military information for the US Central Intelligence Agency, a charge he and his employer denied.

Whelan is a former US marine who was serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony on espionage charges that he denied.

Germany confirmed that they included Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murdering an exiled dissident in Berlin.

US President Joe Biden hailed the deal as “a feat of diplomacy and friendship” and praised Washington’s allies for their “bold and brave decisions.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin met the prisoners returning to Russia at the airport after they landed in Moscow and said they would be given state awards.

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were due to greet those returning to the United States later on Thursday.

“Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world,” Biden said at the White House, flanked by relatives of freed prisoners.

Biden said he owed a particular debt of gratitude to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made the politically difficult choice to release Krasikov.

The deal provides the Biden administration with a marquee diplomatic success as the US presidential campaign, pitting Harris against former Republican President Donald Trump, enters its final months.

RUSSIAN DISSIDENTS FREED

The last major exchange between the United States and Russia in 2010 involved 14 prisoners.

The two countries had a high-profile exchange in December 2022, swapping US basketball star Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years for vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence.

The release of Russians convicted in the West represented a victory for Putin, who had indicated he wanted Krasikov back. Their homeland “had not forgotten you for a moment,” he told them at the airport.

Krasikov is a colonel in the Russian FSB security service who was serving a life sentence in Germany for murdering an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in a Berlin park.

Rico Krieger, a German, had been sentenced to death in Belarus on terrorism charges. He was pardoned by President Alexander Lukashenko, a close Putin ally, prior to being freed.

Also released was Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on July 19, the same day as Gershkovich, as well as Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian-British dissident and US resident serving 25 years for treason after saying Putin was bombing Ukrainian homes, hospitals and schools.

Released along with them were human rights activist Oleg Orlov and Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin.

Many of those freed had worked with Alexei Navalny, Russia’s leading opposition figure who died in unclear circumstances in an Arctic penal colony in February.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, confirmed the exchange had been intended to include Navalny before his death.