Two years ago today, Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovich & Vladimir Kara-Murza were freed from Russia I spoke with @paulnwhelan & @AlsuKurmasheva about the past two years and their work to help others who remain detained cnn.com/2026/08/01/politics/…

On August 1, 2024—two years ago today—@AlsuKurmasheva returned to her family in a historic prisoner exchange, alongside @evangershkovich, @paulnwhelan, @vkaramurza, and others. I remain deeply grateful to @StateSPEHA and the U.S. government and its allies for the moral courage it took to trade Russian spies and a convicted murderer for innocent Americans. That decision saved lives and reunited families. It would not have been possible without the sustained pressure from @RFERL's @RFERLPress advocacy team, the @JamesFoleyFund, the @CPJ_Eurasia, @freedomhouse, the @PressClubDC, @RSF_inter, other press-freedom organizations, and the media that refused to let Alsu’s case fade from public view. But gratitude isn’t where this story ends. The Russian officials who orchestrated Alsu’s imprisonment and held her as a bargaining chip must not remain unaccountable. FSB officers, the lead investigator, Justice Ministry officials, prosecutors, and the judges who sentenced her to 6½ years in a secret trial for a crime she never committed—their names remain on the record. They should never again access the international financial system or set foot in the free world. Atop them all sits the man in the Kremlin who ordered the detention of Americans specifically to trade them for Russian spies and assassins arrested in the West. Russia has operated for years as a de facto state sponsor of wrongful detention. Many more Americans remain imprisoned there. It is long past time to designate Russia as a State Sponsor of Wrongful Detention under the Countering Wrongful Detention Act and hold these officials to account.