MOSCOW, August 1 The plane that was involved in the prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States — in particular, Viktor Bout — landed in Kaliningrad amid reports of an upcoming exchange of American Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who was convicted of espionage in Russia, according to data from the Flightradar24 portal.
According to Flightradar24 data, the An-148-100E took off at 6:11 Moscow time from Vnukovo and was en route to Kaliningrad. At the time of the flight, it was the most tracked on the portal's website.
According to the information on the portal, the plane landed in Kaliningrad at about 8:40 Moscow time.
According to the Fox News channel, Gershkovich may return to the US on Thursday local time as part of a «prisoner exchange».
Earlier, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin does not comment on the topic of preparations for a possible prisoner exchange.
The Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced Gershkovich to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony in the espionage case. He was detained in March 2023.
The topic of a possible exchange of Gershkovich was raised in an interview between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American journalist Tucker Carlson — the Russian President mentioned in this regard a man who «for patriotic reasons eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals.» Apparently, this is about Vadim Sokolov (Krasikov), who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin, although the head of state's press secretary Dmitry Peskov did not directly confirm this.
Igor Litvak, a lawyer for Russian citizen Roman Seleznev, who was convicted in the United States, reported on Wednesday that his client's data had disappeared from the prison database, he is investigating the situation and contacting the prison where his client is being held. Seleznev was kidnapped by American intelligence services in the Maldives in 2014 and subsequently sentenced to 27 years in prison in the United States.
Arkady Bukh, the lawyer for Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik, said that he cannot comment on rumors about an alleged prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States «until something happens,» while refusing to disclose information about the current location of his client. Earlier, a US court postponed sentencing of Russian citizen Vinnik until 2025 due to the «complexity of the case,» the lawyer said.