The Biden Administration and European allies have completed a prisoner swap with Russia, in which American and other journalists and political prisoners who have been held by Russia were exchanged for a Russian assassin and several spies who were held in different countries.
Under the deal, Russia released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, imprisoned since 2023 on espionage charges; he is perhaps the most famous of the prisoners because of the amount of attention reporters gave his imprisonment.
Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive who has been behind bars since 2018, was also part of the prisoner swap. Whelan is a Canadian-born former United States Marine with U.S., British, Irish, and Canadian passports. He was discharged from the Marines in 2008 for bad conduct after being convicted of various counts related to larceny and he was arrested in Russia in December of 2018, where he was accused of being a spy.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is a columnist at The Washington Post, was part of the swap. He was detained in 2022 for criticizing Russia’s war on Ukraine. Also released was Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, convicted in July of spreading lies about the Russian military. Ilya Yashin, a critic of Russia’s war on Ukraine, was another type of prisoner released.
Three of the released prisoners to the U.S. were U.S. citizens, while one has a green card.
When asked by journalists at the White House what he had to say to President Trump’s comments that he would have gotten the prisoners out without giving up anything, Biden responded, “Why didn’t he do it when he was president?”
However, two of the three prisoners were not imprisoned when Trump was president. Only Whelan was jailed by Russia during the middle of the Trump Administration, a fact ignored by American reporters.
As for Russia, it got back prisoners from around Europe, including convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Germany in 2021 for killing someone in a Berlin park in 2019. The murder was supposedly ordered by the Kremlin and Krasikov was a priority return for Russia President Vladimir Putin.
Russia also got back spies that were imprisoned in Slovenia. Norway, and Poland, and computer hacker Roman Seleznev, the son of a powerful Russian lawmaker.
I would not be surprise to learn that the plea deals for the Al-Kaida fellas at Guantanamo were involved in all of this. If you are going to compromise American interests, might as well go big. And then don’t forget about the handling fees that will quietly be paid. Secretary Blinken and Jake Sullivan may be looking ahead to their next jobs, and one must always remember the fifty-one former intelligence professionals.
Trump had no leverage, Kudos to Germany for giving up an assassin to help us out. BTW the German Chancellor does not like Trump