An assassin, a Putin foe’s death, secret talks: How a sweeping US-Russia prisoner swap came together

WASHINGTON (AP) — It was December 2022 and the U.S. government’s chief hostage negotiator had just delivered Brittney Griner back to America after her 10-month imprisonment in Russia. Roger Carstens went to his hotel room anticipating a quick snooze after several sleepless days and had just put his head on the pillow when the phone rang.

On the other end was Paul Whelan from Russia, asking why the trade that brought home Griner had left him behind.

The call was a reminder that a deal heralded for bringing home a celebrated professional athlete had left neither side fully satisfied. The U.S. still needed to bring back Whelan, who was serving a lengthy prison sentence on espionage charges that Washington considered bogus. Russia had its eyes set on someone too: an assassin jailed in Germany named Vadim Krasikov. Further negotiations were needed, culminating Thursday in a 24-person blockbuster swap.

That the latest exchange included both Whelan and Krasikov was no small thing.

It required the U.S. to regroup after the unexpected death in February of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who’d been seen as a cog in a potential exchange. It depended on the willingness of Germany to release a Russian who just five years earlier had committed a cold-blooded killing on its soil, and for other European countries to give up prisoners. And it forced Russia to part with Americans, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, it had stockpiled as trade bait.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true»