American journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and a British-Russian Pulitzer Prize columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza have been released from Russian prisons in what could be the largest prisoner swap deal in the post-Cold War period.
At least 16 prisoners held in Russia and eight Russians detained in Germany, Slovenia, Norway, and Poland walked out from prisons in the deal that was negotiated for months.
For Vladimir Putin, the prized catch was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian spy who was convicted in Germany for shooting dead a Chechen rebel leader at a park.
Russia’s celebrated dissident and the most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, did not live long enough to be part of the prisoner swap.
In February this year, US President Joe Biden secured a deal from German leader Olaf Scholz after a meeting at the Oval Office to free Krasikov in exchange for three prisoners in Russia, Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich, former US Marine Paul Whelan, and Navalny.
But before Washington could propose a deal with Moscow, Navalny died in prison, putting the prisoner swap in danger.
It took a month for the US to re-engage with Russia because the White House brought other allies on board to the prisoner swap deal.
Vice President Kamala Harris had to talk personally to the Slovenian prime minister to work for the release of two Russian illegals — husband-and-wife deep sleeper agents who had disguised as Argentinians to collect information in the country.
There was also a third-country negotiation between American and Russian intelligence agencies.
By mid-July, a final deal was proposed to Moscow — 16 prisoners in Russia and eight Russians detained in four European countries.
By the end of July, two journalists and a former US Marine were flown to an air force base in Turkey for the exchange. Krasikov was also handed to Russian authorities at the same base and was given a hero’s welcome by Putin in Russia.
When Krasikov was arrested in 2021 for the murder of Georgian-born Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a Chechen separatist commander, Moscow denied any involvement in the killing.
But the lavish praises from Putin on Krasikov, whom he described as a patriot, would establish Moscow’s links to the assassination.
The 40-year-old Khangoshvili had been granted political asylum in Germany when he was shot in the head twice and in the torso in a park in Berlin.
The prisoner swap deal brought back some memories from the Cold War, when the US and Russia exchanged prisoners at Checkpoint Charlie, a bridge separating the former East Germany and West Germany where more than 43 kilometers of wall separated East and West Berlin.
It was erected in 1961 to prevent the exodus of engineers, doctors, and other intellectuals from the East to the West.
About 20 percent of East Germany’s population crossed the wall until it came down in 1989.
In 1985, 23 prisoners from the Soviet Union and four Soviet spies from the West were freed at Glienicke Bridge, which became famous after journalists called it “Bridge of Spies” following intense three-year negotiations.
It was the largest prisoner swap deal during the Cold War, involving Marian Zacharski, a Polish former intelligence officer convicted of espionage against the US.
The first high-profile prisoner exchange happened in 1962 when U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was freed from a Soviet prison in exchange for Rudolf Abel, a colonel in Soviet intelligence.
Powers was shot down during a surveillance flight, while Abel was caught in a New York apartment while posing as an artist in 1957.
His deputy betrayed Abel after he walked into the American embassy in Paris, announcing he was a spy. He was ordered to return to the Soviet Union, but feared he might be punished or killed for his alcohol problem.
The Powers-Abel drama was even made into a 2015 Hollywood film, “The Bridge of Spies,” featuring Tom Hanks.
Hanks played lawyer James Donovan, who defended Abel in his trial and later worked for his release in the high-profile prisoner swap.
Gershkovich was not the first journalist to be detained in Russia and swapped for another prisoner in the US and other Western countries.
In 1986, Nicholas Daniloff, a correspondent for US News & World Report in the Soviet Union, was arrested and accused of espionage by the KGB.
Daniloff was exchanged with Gennadi Zakharov, an employee of the Soviet mission to the United Nations, who was arrested in New York.
In the post-Cold War, the high-stakes swap came when US women’s basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The two were swapped at the Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi.
There could still be a future prisoner swap as at least six Americans remained in a Russian prison, including a soldier and a ballerina.
They have become pawns in the dangerous political game between the US and Russia, a Cold War relic.
However, it shows that the American government does not abandon its citizens in prisons in other countries.
Washington will bring home any of its citizens, whether they were framed, wrongly detained, or guilty of common crimes in other countries.
In the Philippines, two US Marines were not handed to local authorities when they were charged with rape and murder.
The US even worked for their release.
Is the Philippines willing to negotiate to exchange prisoners? What kind of leverage does the Philippines have with other states?
Sadly, Filipinos die or are executed in other countries for criminal offenses like drug trafficking and murder.
Worse, these “kababayans” were victims of human trafficking and were even used as drug mules. Manny Mogato
0 Comments