Imprisoned American journalist Evan Gershkovich will be freed from a Russian prison Thursday as part of a multi-country prisoner swap.

Gershkovich will return to the US after spending 16 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison alongside serial killers and other political prisoners, sources told Bloomberg News.

A senior Biden administration official also told ABC News that Gershkovich will be released alongside former US Marine Paul Whelan in the extraordinary deal.

Gershkovich and Whelan are expected to be released as part of the largest multi-country prisoner exchange since the Cold War, ABC reported.

The US and four NATO allies are reportedly swapping a total of 24 prisoners with Russia, the outlet explained.

Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., a prominent critic of the Kremlin, are also expected to be released as part of the deal, according to “Good Morning America.”

Gershkovich, 32, was arrested and accused of spying on March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip for the Wall Street Journal in Yekaterinburg.

Within two weeks of his arrest, the US State Department designated him as wrongfully detained and rallied for his immediate release.

Gershkovich was the first US reporter to be arrested for spying for the Cold War. He, along with the Journal and US officials, repeatedly denied the charges against him.

In mid-July, Gershkovich was found guilty of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison following a trial that involved no outside evidence.

The verdict was condemned by international leaders, with the UK Prime Minister calling the sentence “despicable,” saying that it “only serves to underscore Russia’s utter contempt for media freedom.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called Gershkovich’s detention “part of Putin’s war propaganda.”

Speculation had been swirling in recent days that a massive US-Russia prisoner swap could be imminent, as a number of prominent inmates held in Russia were moved from their cells to unknown locations, according to the Moscow Times.

At the same time, information about some Russian prisoners held in the US vanished from the Federal Bureau of Inmates database, heightening speculation of a prisoner deal.

The last major exchange with Russia happened in December 2022, when American women’s basketball star Brittney Griner was released in return for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

She had spent just under a year in Russian prison for having trace amounts of cannabis oil in her bags as she traveled through the country.

Bout — known as the “Merchant of Death” — had served ten years behind bars after being convicted of conspiring to kill Americans and aiding a terrorist entity.

Former US Marine Paul Whelan was visiting Russia for a friend’s wedding when he was arrested for espionage in 2018. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.

Whelan, 54, repeatedly expressed his frustration with the US government for not securing his release – and even accused President Joe Biden of “serious betrayal.”

“It’s five years. It’s unfathomable to me that they’ve left me behind,” Whelan told the BBC by phone from a labor camp. 

“They’ve basically abandoned me here.”

“There’s likely some KGB people being released here,” Col. Stephen Ganyard speculated to ABC News about what Russian President Vladimir Putin stands to gain from the monumental swap.

He also may have been swayed by domestic pressures, Ganyard added.

Among the prisoners who could potentially be returned to Russia as part of the exchange is Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a Kremlin opponent, the BBC noted.

Krasikov was previously rumored to have been a candidate for a prisoner swap to secure the safety of Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, thought that exchange failed to come through before Navalny died in prison in February.

With Post wires