WASHINGTON — It was December 2022 and the US government’s top hostage negotiator had just sent a letter Brittney Griner returns to America after her 10-month captivity in Russia. Roger Carstens went to his hotel room expecting a quick nap after a few sleepless days and had just put his head on the pillow when the phone rang.
On the other hand was Paul Whelan from Russia, asking why the exchange Griner had brought home had left him behind.
The call was a reminder that a deal announced to bring home a celebrated professional athlete had not fully satisfied either side. The U.S. still had to bring back Whelan, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence on espionage charges that Washington considered false. Russia also had its eye on someone: an assassin held in Germany named Vadim KrasikovFurther negotiations were necessary, Thursday saw the climax with a blockbuster swap involving 24 participants.
That both Whelan and Krasikov were involved in the final exchange was no small matter.
It required the US to regroup after the unexpected death in February of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalnywhich was seen as a cog in a possible exchange. It depended on Germany’s willingness to release a Russian who had committed cold-blooded murder on its soil just five years earlier, and on other European countries to hand over prisoners. And it forced Russia to give up Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovichwho had stored it as merchandise.
And as with all previous treaties, the US and its allies had to reluctantly accept that the price for releasing people they considered clearly innocent was the release of prisoners proven guilty.
US officials have known for some time that Krasikov would be essential to any deal for Whelan – and later Gershkovich.
Russia has nurtured him tirelessly. President Vladimir Putin called him a “patriot,” perhaps seeing an opportunity to show how far Russia would go to bring home anyone it caught. When Krasikov was convicted in 2021, German judges ruled that his murder two years earlier of a Georgian citizen who had fought against Russian troops in Chechnya was not a random killing but had been ordered by Russian intelligence, which had given him a false identity, passport and the means to carry out the killing.
“During these negotiations, we concluded that Krasikov played a key role,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
The US has shown itself willing to release high-profile criminals from its own prisons, including a Taliban drug lord And notorious arms dealer Viktor Boutas part of a prisoner exchange. But Krasikov was held by Germany, which rejected the idea.
The issue came up repeatedly in secret conversations that Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others had with various European foreign ministers, in which they were asked who they had in custody that the Russians might want.
The situation changed when an unlikely candidate emerged for Russia to trade with.
Navalny, Russia most famous opposition politicianwas serving a 19-year prison sentence on extremism charges that he rejected as politically motivated. He had close ties to Germany and had been treated there while recovering from a Russian poisoning attempt. The sides pushed for a deal involving Navalny and Krasikov that would defund Gershkovich and Whelan and satisfy a core and unwavering Russian demand.
But Navalny died unexpectedly in the Arctic penal colony where he was being held, leaving U.S. officials feeling that “the wind had been taken out of our sails,” said a senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity. Even Putin after Navalny’s death said he supported the idea of an exchange.
On the day of Navalny’s death, Sullivan happened to be meeting with Gershkovich’s family to discuss the outlines of the emerging deal. After the Russian opposition leader was found dead, officials were forced to go back to the drawing board to work out a settlement acceptable to all sides.
The White House developed lists of political prisoners in Russia that might be of interest to Germany. During the negotiations, it also proposed exchanges to Germany that did not involve Krasikov.
Last spring, Sullivan and the U.S. team thought they had a workable plan. What they needed was approval from Germany. Sullivan drafted a letter for President Joe Biden to send to Chancellor Olaf Scholz outlining the proposal.
Scholz told Biden words to the effect of, “For you, I will do this,” Sullivan and the senior administration official said. Biden turned to Sullivan and said, “Do it.”
During the negotiations Alsu Kurmasheva was also added to the mix, a Russian-American journalist who was arrested in October 2023 on questionable charges and was eventually included in the deal, along with Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Kremlin critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who was serving 25 years on treason charges widely seen as politically motivated,
Biden later said Germany had asked for nothing in return, calling the talks evidence of the need for strong and stable alliances, though the final deal included the release of five German citizens.
There were other pieces that needed to be worked out.
Even as Biden made one of the most consequential decisions of his political life — to abandon his reelection bid — he was simultaneously working to build cooperation with allies to strike a deal. An hour before he posted his July 21 letter announcing he would not seek another term, Sullivan said, Biden had a phone call with his Slovenian counterpart to get her agreement to release several Russian lurking agents as part of the deal. (Norway and Poland also both released prisoners to Russia.)
In an interview with The Associated Press, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said he saw the deal as a way to support democratic forces and human rights activists in Russia, but also as a way to strengthen solidarity among Western allies.
“Maybe in the future we will be remembered when we need someone to get out,” he said.
In recent days, CIA Director Bill Burns visited Turkey to negotiate transfer logistics with his counterpart.
On Thursday morning, six U.S.-registered private jets arrived in Ankara, the Turkish capital, from Washington Dulles International Airport, Poland, Slovenia, Germany and Norway. They were carrying Russian prisoners who were to be handed over and were preparing to take released Americans and other prisoners back to their home countries.
The Biden administration had quietly summoned the families of the detained Americans to the White House in the days leading up to the swap, insisting on secrecy. As an elaborate dance played out to complete the swap on the tarmac halfway around the world, the families waited in the White House for the first word that their loved ones were out of Russian hands.
Biden himself brought up the news at the White House, after he had spoken to the Americans in Ankara and finally confirmed his appointment.
“I said, ‘Welcome home almost,'” Biden later told reporters. He then quickly passed the phone to their loved ones. Biden also shared a brief remembrance of Kara-Murza, who served with Biden as a pallbearer at the funeral of Arizona Sen. John McCain.
Hanging over the deal was an acknowledgement of the inherent imbalance: the U.S. and other Western countries had extradited people who had been rightfully convicted, or at least charged, with crimes including murder. Russia freed journalists, dissidents and others the West said were being held on false charges.
“It is difficult to send back a convicted criminal to secure the release of an innocent American,” Sullivan told reporters on Thursday. Even The Wall Street Journal’s editor in chief, Emma Tucker, acknowledged that reality, writing in a letter posted online that the terms of the swap were “predictable as the only solution given President Putin’s cynicism.”
The family members later joined Biden as he announced the deal from the State Dining Room of the White House.
Biden stressed his commitment to getting Americans home, even as he and other officials acknowledged the imbalance in facilitating the release of a convicted murderer for a wrongfully held American. Critics of such deals have long worried that they encourage future hostage-taking.
For the families, however, the focus was mainly on reuniting with their loved ones.
A plane carrying American prisoners landed at Joint Base Andrews, just outside Washington, before midnight. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were present when they arrived.
Gershkvovich embraced them both, then turned his attention to his mother, Ella Milman, who quickened her pace as she approached him with arms wide open. He embraced her and lifted her into the air in celebration.
The liberated Americans lingered on the steaming asphalt to savor the moment of their return to the U.S. They took selfies with family and friends, shared hugs with Biden and Harris, and patted their loved ones on the back. At one point, Biden gave Whelan the flag pin from his own lapel.
“I feel great,” Whelan said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
____
David Keyton, an Associated Press editor in Stockholm, contributed to this report.