Former Marine Paul Whelan is freed in a prisoner swap by Russia.

As part of a prisoner exchange, Russia has freed former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, according to Planet Chronicle Digital.

The U.S. State Department stated that Whelan had been wrongfully detained by Russian authorities for over five years. His release is part of a significant prisoner swap between the United States and Germany, which includes political prisoners and journalists.

A former U.S. Marine and corporate security executive from Michigan, Whelan, has been imprisoned in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage charges, which he and the U.S. government both deny. He was given a 16-year prison sentence.

In 2008, Whelan received a bad conduct discharge after being convicted of using false documents and attempting to steal thousands of dollars while on duty in Iraq. Since at least 2007, he had been visiting Russia and had spent over a decade building relationships with friends and contacts in the country. Despite his family's claims that he was in Russia for tourism, he was arrested.

"David, Whelan's brother, stated after his arrest that he is not a spy. He clarified that Paul's background is in law enforcement and he has military experience, working in corporate security."

The Kremlin's response to the U.S. imprisonment of a Russian citizen was Maria Butina's arrest, who pleaded guilty in 2018 to a U.S. federal charge of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent. Butina had provided information to Russia's government on key U.S. political figures.

In November, a fellow prisoner attacked Whelan on a production line in a labor camp, according to his family.

In March 2023, Gershkovich, 32, was detained in Yekaterinburg, Russia, while on a reporting trip. He was accused of espionage and has been held ever since. A Moscow court recently rejected his appeal for pre-trial release, extending his detention to at least January 30, 2024.

The charges of wrongful detention against him were denied by both The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government, with the latter calling them "absurd on their face."

In recent years, two American citizens, including WNBA star Brittney Griner, have been exchanged for Russians imprisoned in the U.S.

This report was contributed to by Planet Chronicle' Bret Baier and Amy Munneke, Planet Chronicle Digital's Danielle Wallace, and the Associated Press.