WASHINGTON — America and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history on Thursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.

Mr. Gershkovich; Mr. Whelan; and a journalist with dual American-Russia citizenship, Alsu Kurmasheva; arrived on American soil shortly before midnight for a joyful reunion with their families.

President Biden and Vice President Harris also were at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to greet them and dispense hugs all around.

The trade unfolded despite relations between Washington and Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold War after President Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Negotiators in backchannel talks at one point explored an exchange involving Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but after his death in February ultimately stitched together a 24-person deal that required significant concessions from European allies, including the release of a Russian assassin, and secured freedom for a cluster of journalists, suspected spies, political prisoners and others.

Mr. Biden trumpeted the exchange, by far the largest in a series of swaps with Russia, as a diplomatic feat while welcoming families of the returning Americans to the White House.

The deal, though, like others before it, reflected an innate imbalance: America and allies gave up Russians charged or convicted of serious crimes in exchange for Russia releasing journalists, dissidents, and others imprisoned by the country’s highly politicized legal system on charges seen by the West as trumped-up.

“Deals like this one come with tough calls,” Mr. Biden said. He added, “There’s nothing that matters more to me than protecting Americans at home and abroad.”

Under the deal, Russia released Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who was jailed in 2023 and convicted in July of espionage charges that he and the American government vehemently denied.

His family said in a statement released by the newspaper that “we can’t wait to give him the biggest hug and see his sweet and brave smile up close.” The paper’s editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, called it a “joyous day.”

“While we waited for this momentous day, we were determined to be as loud as we could be on Evan’s behalf. We are so grateful for all the voices that were raised when his was silent. We can finally say, in unison, ‘Welcome home, Evan,’” she wrote in a letter posted online.