We knew it was going to happen. But we didn’t know when. Nor did we know how broad the deal would be — how many countries would be involved; how many prisoners would be exchanged; and how many victims would be left behind.
International prisoner exchanges are complex. The political and diplomatic intricacies are dizzying. Competing governments seek to leverage the value of whatever prisoner(s) they hold against the targeted prize(s) they are trying to exact from those negotiating with them — a disturbing mix of criminal law and political expediency.
On Aug. 1, we witnessed the largest international prisoner exchange since the Cold War. In the complicated deal, journalists, a former Marine and political activists were freed by Russia in exchange for the release of a convicted Russian assassin and several Russian intelligence operatives and criminal computer hackers held in the United States and Europe.
Out of the 16 prisoners released by Russia and Belarus, four were Americans. The group was led by Evan Gershkovich, the 32-year-old Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in March 2023 on charges of espionage — an accusation forcefully denied by both his employer and the U.S. government — and who was sentenced last month to 16 years in prison. He was joined by Paul Whelan, the 54-year-old former Marine and corporate security executive, also sentenced to 16 years of imprisonment for spying, in a circumstance where Whelan claims to have been framed.
Also released were Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who was sentenced to 6½ years in prison for spreading false information about Russia, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition figure and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, who campaigned in his writings against Russia’s war in Ukraine and against Russian President Vladimir Putin and who was sentenced to a 25-year prison term for “treason.”
The eight prisoners returned to Russia included Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian assassin serving a life sentence in Germany; Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian businessman with ties to the Kremlin serving a nine-year sentence in a U.S. prison for insider trading; and Roman Seleznev, the son of Russian legislator who was sentenced to a 27-year term for orchestrating a cyberattack on thousands of American businesses, leading to the loss of $169 million by financial institutions.
For the families and friends of those released, the results are welcome, even if the whole process is so disturbingly contrived. But for the families and friends of those left behind — those who continue to serve harsh sentences often driven more by politics than the law — the hurt is deep and painful. We saw a similar reaction from Whelan and his family when WNBA star Brittney Griner was exchanged for a Russian arms dealer last year, and Whelan was left behind.
With the latest swap, at least eight Americans remain in Russian prison on a variety of charges — some of which sound serious. Marc Fogel, Robert Woodland, Gordon Black, Robert Gilman, Ksenia Karelina, David Barnes, Eugene Spector and Travis Leake didn’t draw winning tickets in this round of the prisoner exchange lottery. They hope for a better result in the next round.
