US journalist Evan Gershkovich and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan were released by Russia on Thursday as part of the biggest East-West prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War, a complex deal negotiated in secrecy for more than a year. The White House said the US had negotiated the trade with Russia, Germany and three other countries. It involved 24 prisoners, including 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight prisoners held in the West being sent back to Russia. Germany confirmed they included Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murdering an exiled dissident in Berlin. President Joe Biden hailed…