Biden and Har­ris greet freed pris­on­ers from Rus­sia on tar­mac

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden and Vice Pres­i­dent Kamala Har­ris greet­ed the U.S. cit­i­zens freed from Rus­sia as they arrived back on Amer­i­can soil at Joint Base Andrews late Thurs­day night.
The Unit­ed States secured the release of 16 peo­ple from Rus­sia on Thurs­day, includ­ing Wall Street Jour­nal reporter Evan Ger­shkovich, Radio Free Europe/Radio Lib­er­ty jour­nal­ist Alsu Kur­ma­she­va, and for­mer U.S. Marine Paul Whe­lan.
Whe­lan was the first to exit the plane, with the for­mer Marine greet­ing Biden by ask­ing how he was. Dur­ing their inter­ac­tion, Biden gave his Amer­i­can flag pin off his lapel to Whe­lan, who had been detained in Rus­sia since 2018.

Pres­i­dent Joe Biden places his Amer­i­can flag pin on Paul Whe­lan at Andrews Air Force Base, Mary­land, fol­low­ing Whelan’s release as part of a 24-per­son pris­on­er swap between Rus­sia and the Unit­ed States on Thurs­day, Aug. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Bran­don)

Ger­shkovich also greet­ed Biden and Har­ris and received a warm embrace from his fam­i­ly. The Wall Street Jour­nal reporter was tak­en i …