A prisoner exchange between Russia, the United States, Germany and Belarus will take place in the coming hours, a Slovenian TV channel claims

On the afternoon of July 31, the Ljubljana District Court sentenced a married couple, Artem and Anna Dultsev, to one year and seven months in prison for espionage in favor of Russia. This was reported by the Slovenian TV channel N1.

Slovenia is deporting the Russians because they have already spent that time behind bars during the trial. According to journalists, the Dultsevs' sentence was part of a major prisoner exchange deal.

Russia, the United States, Germany and Belarus, as well as other countries, are participating. The exchange is expected to take place in the next few hours.

The deal will include FSB killer Vadim Krasikov, Slovenian journalists claim. The death sentence for German citizen Rico Krieger, which was handed down by a court in Belarus the day before, was an element of pressure on Germany before the upcoming exchange. On July 30, Alexander Lukashenko pardoned Krieger.

Vadim Krasikov, whom Putin wanted to return to Russia as part of a swap in the spring of 2024, is in prison in Germany. He received a life sentence for the murder in Berlin of Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who fought against Russia in the 2000s.

Earlier it became known that at least nine political prisoners were taken from the colonies in an unknown direction, among them - politician Ilya Yashin, former coordinators of Navalny's headquarters Ksenia Fadeeva and Liliya Chanysheva, human rights activist Oleg Orlov, artist Sasha Skochilenko and teenager Kevin Leak, convicted in the case of treason. Later, on July 31, politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, journalist Maria Ponomarenko and American former infantryman Paul Whelan were added to them.

Data on some of the Russians serving sentences in the US, including Alexander Vinnik and Vladislav Klyushin, have disappeared from the US Bureau of Prisons database, lawyer Igor Slabykh has found out . RIA Novosti was also unable to find Russians Maxim Marchenko and Vadim Konoshchenko in it.