THE United States and Russia completed their biggest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history onThursday, with Moscow releasing journalist Evan Gershkovich and fellow American Paul Whelan, along with dissidents including Vladimir Kara-Murza, in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free. Gershkovich, Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist with dual US-Russia citizenship, arrived on American soil shortly before midnight for a joyful reunion with their families. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also there to greet them. The trade unfolded despite relations betweenWashingtonand Moscow being at their lowest point since the Cold Warafter Russian PresidentVladimir Putin’s February 2022invasion of Ukraine.

 

Negotiators in backchannel talks at one point explored anexchange involving RussianOpposition leader Alexei Navalny, but after his death inFebruary ultimately stitchedtogether a 24-person deal thatrequired significant concessions from European allies, including the release of aRussian assassin, and securedfreedom for a cluster of journalists, suspected spies, political prisoners and others. Biden trumpeted theexchange, by far the largest ina series of swaps with Russia