WASHINGTON – It was December 2022, and the US government’s chief hostage negotiator had just handed over Brittney Griner back in America after 10 months prison in Russia. Roger Carstens went to his hotel room anticipating a quick nap after several days without sleep and had just put his head on the pillow when the phone rang.
At the other end was Paulo Whelan from Russia, asking why the trade that brought Griner home left him behind.
The call was a reminder that the announced deal to bring home a famous professional athlete left neither side completely satisfied. The US still needed to bring back Whelan, who was serving a long prison sentence on espionage charges that Washington considered false. Russia also had its eye on someone: a murderer arrested in Germany named Vadim Krasikov. More negotiations were needed, culminating on Thursday with a highly successful exchange of 24 people.
The fact that the latest trade included Whelan and Krasikov was no small feat.
Demanded that the US regroup after the unexpected death in February Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which was seen as a cog in a potential exchange. It depended on Germany’s willingness to release a Russian who just five years earlier had committed a cold-blooded murder on its territory, and on other European countries handing over prisoners. And forced Russia to separate from the Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovichit had been stored as commercial bait.
And, like every other agreement before it, it required the US and its allies to reluctantly accept that the price for freeing people they considered clearly innocent was releasing prisoners determined to be clearly guilty.
American officials had known for some time that Krasikov would be essential to any deal for Whelan — and later for Gershkovich.
Russia tirelessly raised it. President Vladimir Putin called him a “patriot,” perhaps sensing an opportunity to signal how far Russia would go to bring home anyone who could be caught. When Krasikov was sentenced in 2021, German judges ruled that the murder two years earlier of a Georgian citizen who fought against Russian troops in Chechnya was not a random hit but rather ordered by Russian intelligence, which gave him an identity fake, passport and the resources to commit the murder.
“Throughout this negotiation, we came to the conclusion that Krasikov was a key,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The US has shown a willingness to release high-profile criminals from its own prisons, including a Taliban drug lord It is notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, as part of prisoner exchanges. But Krasikov was detained by Germany, which rejected the idea.
The issue was repeatedly raised in furtive conversations that Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others had with several European foreign ministers, who were asked who they had in custody that the Russians might want.
The terrain has shifted with the emergence of an unlikely candidate for Russia’s trade.
Navalny, from Russia best-known opposition politician, was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated. He had close ties to Germany and was treated there while recovering from an attempted Russian poisoning. The parties advanced a deal involving Navalny and Krasikov that would unblock Gershkovich and Whelan and satisfy a central and unwavering Russian demand.
But Navalny died unexpectedly in the Arctic penal colony where he was imprisoned, leaving US authorities with the feeling that “the wind had been taken out of our sails”, said a senior administration official, who briefed journalists on condition of anonymity. Putin after Navalny’s death said he supported the idea of a swap.
On the day of Navalny’s death, Sullivan was coincidentally scheduled to meet with Gershkovich’s family about the contours of the emerging deal. After the Russian opposition leader was found dead, authorities were forced to go back to the drawing board to develop a deal acceptable to all parties.
The White House has drawn up lists of political prisoners in Russia who could be of interest to Germany. During the negotiations, he also proposed exchanges to Germany that did not include Krasikov.
Last spring, Sullivan and the U.S. team thought they had a viable plan. What they needed was Germany’s approval. Sullivan drafted a letter for President Joe Biden to send to Chancellor Olaf Scholz outlining the proposal.
Scholz told Biden words to the effect, “For you, I will do it,” according to Sullivan and the senior administration official. Biden turned to Sullivan and said, “Do it.”
Added to the mix during the negotiations was Alsosu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who was arrested on dubious charges in October 2023 and ultimately included in the deal, along with Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Vladimir Kara-Murza, who served 25 years on treason charges widely seen as politically motivated,
Biden later said Germany asked for nothing in return, holding up the conversation as a testament to the need for strong, stable alliances, even though the final agreement included the release of five German citizens.
There were still other pieces to resolve.
Even as Biden made one of the most important decisions of his political life – abandoning his re-election bid – he simultaneously worked to build cooperation among allies to reach an agreement. An hour before he posted his July 21 letter announcing he would not seek another term, Sullivan said, Biden was on the phone with his Slovenian counterpart trying to secure his agreement to release two Russian agents as part of the deal. (Norway and Poland also released prisoners to Russia).
In an interview with the Associated Press, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said he saw the agreement as a means of supporting democratic forces and human rights activists within Russia, but also as a way of strengthening solidarity between the Western allies.
“Maybe one day in the future we will be remembered when we have someone we need to take away,” he said.
In recent days, CIA Director Bill Burns visited Turkey to meet with his counterpart to negotiate transfer logistics.
On Thursday morning, six US-registered private jets converged on Ankara, the Turkish capital, from Washington Dulles International Airport, Poland, Slovenia, Germany and Norway, carrying the Russian prisoners to be handed over and preparing to take the Americans released and other detainees returned to their countries of origin.
The Biden administration quietly summoned the families of detained Americans to the White House in the days before the exchange, insisting on secrecy. As a complicated dance took place to complete the exchange on the dance floor half a world away, families waited at the White House for the first news that their loved ones were out of Russian hands.
Biden himself broke the news to families in the Oval Office as soon as he got firm confirmation while speaking to Americans in Ankara.
“I said, ‘Welcome, almost home,’” Biden told reporters later. He then quickly passed the phone to his loved ones. Biden also shared a brief reminiscence about Kara-Murza, who with Biden was a pallbearer at Arizona Sen. John McCain’s funeral.
Hovering over the agreement was a recognition of its innate imbalance: the US and other Western nations had given up on people considered duly convicted, or at least accused, of crimes, including murder; Russia has released journalists, dissidents and others considered by the West to be detained on trumped-up charges.
“It’s difficult to send back a convicted criminal to secure the release of an innocent American,” Sullivan admitted to reporters on Thursday. Even The Wall Street Journal’s top editor, Emma Tucker, acknowledged this reality, writing in a letter published online that the terms of the exchange were “predictable as the only solution, given President Putin’s cynicism.”
Family members later joined Biden as he announced the deal in the White House State Dining Room.
Biden has emphasized his commitment to getting Americans back even as he and other officials have acknowledged the imbalance in facilitating the release of a convicted killer for a wrongfully detained American. Critics of such agreements have long worried that they encourage future hostage takings.
For families, however, the immediate focus continued to be reuniting with their loved ones.
A plane carrying American detainees landed before midnight at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on hand for its arrival.
Gershkvovich hugged them both and then turned his attention to his mother, Ella Milman, who quickened her pace as she approached him with open arms. He hugged her, lifting her into the air in celebration.
The freed Americans remained on the smoking tarmac to enjoy the moment of their return to the US. They took selfies with family and friends, shared hugs with Biden and Harris and patted loved ones on the back. At one point, Biden gave Whelan the flag pin that was on his lapel.
“I feel great,” Whelan said. “It will take a long time.”
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Associated Press writer David Keyton in Stockholm contributed to this report.
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