Russia-US prisoner swap: Kremlin says Putin met prisoners as a sign of respect – live

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris met Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other freed American prisoners just hours after Washington and Moscow completed their largest prisoner exchange since the cold war.

After a few minutes spent chatting with family, Evan approached the crowd of reporters and began to embrace his friends and colleagues.

Asked how he was feeling he said “I feel fine.” But he also spoke about his feelings boarding the bus with the other freed detainees on Thursday and said he was happy to see Russians on board as well.

“There’s one thing I would like to say. It was great to get on that bus today and see not just Americans and Germans but Russian political prisoners.

“I spent a month in prison in Yekaterinburg where everyone I sat with was a political prisoner. Nobody knows them publicly, they have various political beliefs, they are not all connected with Navalny supporters, who everyone knows about. I would potentially like to see if we could do something about them as well. I’d like to talk to people about that in the next weeks and months.”

Read the full story here, from Andrews air force base.