The negotiations that led to the historic exchange of 26 prisoners – including two minors – between Russia and the West lasted more than two years.
Just before seven in the morning (Greece time), Joe Biden and Kamala Harris welcomed at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, WSJ reporters Evan Gershkowitz and RFE/RL Also Kurmasheva, as well as former Marine Paul Whelan, who they fell in tears into the arms of their loved ones.
The Russians are counting on a victory, says the CNN report. The exchange doesn’t look like an episode out of a spy thriller with a prisoner exchange on a bridge. The Kremlin put Americans as hostages to secure the release of Russians who served state interests.
Among those returning to Russia are convicted hackers and several Russian nationals held in the West for espionage. The biggest prize for Russia was the return of Vadim Krashikov, a convicted executioner whose release Russian President Vladimir Putin had publicly called for.
Krashikov was convicted by a German court of the 2019 murder of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a Chechen of Georgian nationality, in a Berlin park. In a February interview with right-wing media personality Tucker Carlson, Putin described Krashikov as “a man who, for patriotic reasons, killed a bandit.”
What does exchange mean?
But what does the historic agreement signal for Russia’s ongoing confrontation with the West?
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, relations between Moscow and Washington have been at an all-time low. But the negotiations leading up to Thursday’s (2/8) exchange show that the channels of communication between US and Russian officials remain open.
We know, for example, says CNN, that a prisoner swap between several countries that could free Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was being discussed, involving Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Behind-the-scenes efforts to free Navalny were also supported by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. We remind you that Navalny was found dead on February 16, 2024 in a Russian prison camp in the Arctic.
With the war in Ukraine raging, top American and Russian generals have kept the lines of communication open longer to prevent the United States and Russia from being drawn into open – unwitting – conflict.
They hardly change in geopolitics
The exchange of Americans with Russian opposition figures is also a kind of victory for the Kremlin.
Even in prison, people like Vladimir Kara-Murza – who was serving a long sentence for treason – maintained their status internationally as prisoners of conscience. Dissidents such as Russian artist Alexandra Skotsilenko, who was sentenced to seven years for a protest that included putting anti-war messages on price tags in a Russian grocery store – have exposed the absurdity of Russia’s draconian wartime media laws.
The trade-off, at least in the short term, means that these anti-war voices are exiles rather than a threat to the system. The liberation of the Russians means that Russia’s political climate is no less oppressive.
And from a geopolitical point of view, little changes. After the prisoner exchange, the West will still have to deal with a Russian leadership that has made clear what its priorities are: protecting the interests of the security state and maintaining a course of open hostility toward the West.
Russia takes care of its own people
By releasing Krashikov and others accused of espionage, Russia seems to be sending the following message: “If you work for us, you will be rewarded and in the end we will protect you. If you betray us, we won’t forget it.”
The case of Viktor Bout, the Russian traded in 2022 for basketball star Brittney Griner is one such message from Russia. Bout has long been suspected of ties to Russian intelligence. Described by the US Department of Justice as “one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers” – and the inspiration for the anti-hero in Hollywood film Lord of War.
After returning to Russia, Bout found a place in politics, giving frequent interviews and even appearing at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the favorite annual talk-shop of Putin and the Russian elite.
Anna Chapman, one of 10 Russian agents deported from the US in a 2010 prisoner swap, was also honored upon her return to Russia. She was elected to a pro-government council and launched her own clothing line.
Chapman and nine other so-called “illegal immigrants” were exchanged for four people, including former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, who was convicted of spying for the UK.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia survived being poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in the English cathedral city of Salisbury in 2018. Britain blamed Russia for the poisoning and Russia strongly denied involvement, although Putin referred to Skripal as “bastard” and “traitor”, with his contempt declaring that he got what he deserved.
- Andrei Lugovoi
The Kremlin’s… long arm was also seen in the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent turned whistleblower.
Both a 2016 British inquiry and the European Court of Human Rights concluded that the two men who allegedly poisoned Litvinenko – former KGB and FSB officer Andrei Lugovoi and former Russian army officer Dmitry Kovtun – were acting on behalf of of the Russian state.
Lugovoi won a seat in the Russian parliament and in 2015 was honored by Putin.
This pattern reinforces Russia’s message to those who work for the Russian state – and particularly its vast security and intelligence apparatus – that Russia looks out for its own. Putin, after all, is a graduate of the secret services and knows the code of honor that is peculiar to the world of Russian espionage.
The prisoners exchanged
Three US citizens and one US permanent resident: Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, Russian-American journalist Alsou Kurmaseva and dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza.
12 German nationals and Russian political prisoners: Dieter Voronin, Kevin Leek, Rico Krieger, Patrick Sobel, Herman Moises, Ilya Yashin, Lilia Tsanisheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Vadim Ostanin, Andrey Pirovarov, Oleg Orlov and Sasha Skosilenko.
Eight prisoners repatriated to Russia: Vadim Krasikov (from Germany), Artem Viktorovich Dulchev (from Slovenia), Anna Valerevna Dulcheva (from Slovenia), Mikhail Valierevich (from Norway), Pavel Alekseyevich Rubtsov (from Poland), Roman Seleznev (from USA), Vladislav Klyusin (from USA) and Vadim Konoschenok (from USA).
The list of 26 is completed by two minors who were not considered prisoners.
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