Biden Administration Negotiates Release of Evan Gershkovich and Others
As many outlets have been reporting since dawn my time, there has been a massive prisoner exchange between the US, Russia, and five European allies.
President Biden issued this release, emphasizing the import of allies.
Today, three American citizens and one American green-card holder who were unjustly imprisoned in Russia are finally coming home: Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy. All told, we’ve negotiated the release of 16 people from Russia—including five Germans and seven Russian citizens who were political prisoners in their own country. Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.
I am grateful to our Allies who stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome— including Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, and Turkey. This is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world whom you can trust and depend upon. Our alliances make Americans safer.
And let me be clear: I will not stop working until every American wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world is reunited with their family. My Administration has now brought home over 70 such Americans, many of whom were in captivity since before I took office. Still, too many families are suffering and separated from their loved ones, and I have no higher priority as President than bringing those Americans home.
Today, we celebrate the return of Paul, Evan, Alsu, and Vladimir and rejoice with their families. We remember all those still wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world. And reaffirm our pledge to their families: We see you. We are with you. And we will never stop working to bring your loved ones home where they belong.
WSJ has a very long story about the lead-up to this release, focused on Gershkovich’s mother’s activism.
The Insider has a list of all the people exchanged, which include an assassin, two spies caught in Slovenia, and three people prosecuted in the US.
Readers of this blow will remember Putin associate, Vladislav Klyushin, who conspired with the former GRU hacker who targeted John Podesta in an insider trading scheme.
On September 7, 2023, a court in Boston, Massachusetts, found the Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin guilty of insider trading and sentenced him to nine years in prison.
Klyushin was arrested in Switzerland in March 2021 and later extradited to the U.S. He was accused of participating in a scheme that involved the illegal use of confidential information for financial gain in the securities market. According to the indictment, the insider trading scheme, orchestrated outside the U.S., generated $93 million in profits for its participants.
Here’s a post I did on how they found Klyushin.
Guaranteed there are already MAGAts complaining about Biden releasing dangerous criminals in exchange for a worthless purveyor of fake news. Because they’re patriots, you see.
EDIT: But I should gave said first this is a commendable achievement and I breathed a sigh of relief on seeing the news.
Trump: “They’re calling the trade ‘complex’ – That’s so nobody can figure out how bad it is!”
And Vance is assigning credit to Trump: “bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump is about to be back in office so they’re cleaning house … I think it’s a testament to Donald Trump’s strength.”
These fucking people.
[Marcy, there is no link to the promised post]
NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/08/01/world/russia-prisoner-swap-us/2f338901-e324-59a2-8818-0df78613e3c7 Aug. 1, 2024, 12:04 p.m. ET
I can’t find anything else about Biden’s remarks right now.
BIDEN [statement]:
Oops. Linked!
Here’s the link through the White House, but is it working?
[Yes…it starts a little past the 33 min mark]
President Biden Delivers Remarks on the Release of Americans Detained in Russia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpvTFYfD-T0
From the coverage I heard Biden was not negotiating at the same time he was considering leaving the race, he was negotiating when he had covid. Amazing how a decrepit, cognitively challenged old man do that.
I am glad Kara-Murza got out, but I hope Biden’s people politely advise him not to go back again of his own volition as long as Russia is totalitarian. At this point, he’s more valuable in exile and whole lot safer.
KGB actually let Kara-Murza go?! Ghost of Navalny is up and dancing and giving us high fives! When K-M could be the next king of Holy Mother Russia?! Or at least (if not poisoned thrice) the new opposition leader? KGB calc must be that Harris wins.
Apologies to God. This one is for one of his representatives on Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uc4AdrA7QdE
And Oleg Orlov, who’s work looks like it makes sense mostly in Russia -documenting the crimes of the soviet era- but is so important, as history is being rewritten.
In anticipation of a Trumpian response which will mirror the one he made at the time of the Brittney Griner swap— ie something which will manage to be sour, boastful and inaccurate— here’s a fact check from that time
‘Criticizing the Biden administration’s recent prisoner swap of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner as “a one-sided disaster,” former President Donald Trump wrongly boasted that his administration “got 58 hostages released from various hostile countries without paying any money, or giving up anything.”’
https://www.factcheck.org/2022/12/trump-swapped-prisoners-too/
Four words for Trump…
Otto Warmbier
Maria Butina
He needs to be asked about them!
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Marcy, this typo stopped me in my tracks:
“Readers of this blow will remember Putin associate, Vladislav Klyushin….”
I pondered for a while what “blow” might refer to here, until I realized you meant to type “blog.”
Yes, I caught that and while knowing it was a typo had to smirk.
First though – congrats to the Biden team for this feat of political acumen and yes, waiting for the MAGAts frothing about ‘releasing dangerous prisoners’.
The memory that brought the smirk:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hookers-and-blow-save-christmas-munty-c-pepin/1137831675
How will Trump take credit for this?
In his delusional mind, he is working on it, as we speak
Why would the Russians do this?
Perhaps they are giving up on Trump and want the US to help set up negotiations in Ukraine?
Or maybe Putin’s control is not as solid as it seems. ‘It looks like the interests of the Russian intelligence service are diverging from Putin’s interests. We shall see.
Putin did this because he wanted to show the American voters in anticipation of the November US Presidential election that he can be a partner to a US President, and this release is part of Putin’s plan to help Trump get elected this November.
Rest assured, Trump and Putin communicate regularly.
Also, Putin doesn’t know Harris; so this is Putin’s KGB trained method of persuading the American voters to vote for Trump instead of Harris because he and Trump can work together, which ties in perfectly with what Trump has been saying on the campaign trail for years now.
Putin has been providing Trump with a campaign script to follow.
That’s one reason Orbán met with Trump in Florida a couple of weeks ago. Orbán is helping Putin handle and control Trump.
It’s being reported that Harris was the one who persuaded Scholz to release the guy who murdered the Chechen activist.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/1/2259888/-Harris-played-a-key-role-in-arranging-the-prisoner-swap
It was also reported by Alex Wagner that Schultz said he was doing this for Joe Biden.
I mean no disrespect, but this “..he can be a partner to a US President, and this release is part of Putin’s plan to help Trump get elected this November..” makes absolutely no sense.
Some things are about more than Trump. In this case, it’s about Biden and his Secretary of State and Biden’s relationship to NATO partners. Real professionals at their jobs.
Agreed. Negotiating a multi national swap is not like a reality TV show. The Russians got something they wanted.
Yes. And Putin doesn’t make decisions solely, or even mostly, based on American politics.
Trump must be livid as he couldn’t pull off a Reagan-hold the hostages till I’m in office.
Putin wanted his assassin back as well as some spies.
I wondered this myself. Trump had boasted that Gershkovich would be released just as soon as he is sworn in as president. Why would Pooty-Poot instead give Biden/Harris credit for a diplomatic triumph?
And it was one. Giving up people who deserve to be imprisoned for people who don’t is more than a fair trade. Going forward, it may encourage them to take more prisoners, but letting people rot in a foreign prison to avoid a “moral hazard” would be sick. Unfortunately, journalists who want to report from inside Russia have to think carefully about the risks. We should be grateful to those willing to take them.
Badger Robert
August 1, 2024 at 2:30 pm
The Russians got a lot of what they wanted
Not least a convicted assassin who reportedly has the rank of Colonel, and who was reportedly the biggest sticking point. Persuading Germany to give him up would not have been easy, and likely impossible for Trump to have achieved.
Convicted deep cover “illegals”, and the children of a married pair of illegals, is a lot of icing on that cake
And there are the rest.
I understand it is a point of national pride to get their agents back, just as it is a point of pride to kill double agents.
Putin did the deal, not to help or hinder American and or European politics, but because it was there. The deal was there because the present crop of US and European statespersons persuaded themselves and each other to make it so.
They people who were sent back to Russia aren’t going to be heroes.
Publicly feted
But always deeply suspected by the organs of the state.
Compare and contrast with how the victims of Russia are going to be treated as a result of their freedom; and the Russian dissidents will in all probability be enabled to continue their work should they so desire.
Is this a bad deal for democracy? – I think not.
Those claiming a win for Putin are looking at things far too narrowly and superficially IMHO.
A meaningless exchange, except for the individuals.
This will have zero effect on policy, balance of forces or anything else. A classic example of getting excited about the wrapping paper on an empty box.
Within a few hours, it won’t even serve to give the talkers something to talk about.
A lot of stuff isn’t being talked about or analyzed because this dominates the news. From Putin’s point of view, that’s effective diplomacy. And he got his personal guard and assassin back.
It’s distracting in the way that Trump’s attacks on Harris’s race – not new to a guy who ran against her and Biden in 2020 – distract from his ignorance, mental health, and inability to speak, articulate a position, or admit fault.
Agreed. I don’t presume to know how Putin – Trump communication channels work, but I’m confident they exist. Its nearly certain Putin & Biden personally approved the deal. I’ll speculate that prohibiting leaking the deal to Trump was a US condition. I’d guess the calculation form RU is that this is likely a minor footnote in the Presidential election. The RU’s likely figured they would not be able to get this deal with Trump because it was too complex and relied too much on US State department collaboration with allies, esp. Germany.
I would like to know the back story on what the German’s got out of it – seems like they gave up a lot for a lot of US nationals, RU dissidents and a few Germans.
Definitely read the Insider article, https ://theins. ru/en/news/273542 for context
[Moderator’s note: blank space added to URL to prevent accidental click through by community members. The site linked has not been vetted by this site; use at your own risk noting the domain is Russian. /~Rayne]
Because getting his assassin back in exchange for a journalist he basically kidnapped is a good deal from his perspective? Look, Biden and his team did as good a job as could be managed here, but Vlad held cards we didn’t, since we don’t randomly arrest prominent Russians who happen to visit the West and haven’t done anything wrong.
Presidential electoral politics should (probably) not steal any of the time over this monumental feat.
But I just want to say that this swap publicity will pricelessly take the media limelight away from Trump that some said he was trying to “outrage” back into with his NABJ interview. Well…for a while anyway. And if KH was involved in this directly, as some believe, then that needs to be put front and center in the coming days.
Not surprised: https://x.com/TrumpDailyPosts/status/1819067304891895885
Eff this guy.
A handy fact check from the last time he made *this* slightly amended false claim:
“Trump Swapped Prisoners, Too”
Robert Farley
December 16, 2022
https://www.factcheck.org/2022/12/trump-swapped-prisoners-too/
Possible Fox headline:
Biden shows weakness by releasing only three prisoners; Trump vows to release hundreds of J6 prisoners. MAGA!
Does anyone remember when the last Soviet-era bulk prisoner swap happened, and how it was done?
Pepperidge Farm remembers, and obviously so do “senile”, “lame duck” Joe Biden and the “Deep” State Department.
Sometimes, decades in government can be an asset, not a liability.
There was a swap more recently than Soviet-era, and Biden may have known quite a bit about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program#Prisoner_exchange
Thank you President Biden.
Brittney Griner reacts to prisoner swap between U.S. and Russia: ‘This is a big win, huge win’ https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5675404/2024/08/01/prisoner-swap-russia-brittney-griner-paul-whelan/ Chantel Jennings [42m ago]
Awe-inspiring, Mr. President. What a phenomenal outcome, based on skilled persuasion and coordination, generous cooperation, and shared commitment to democratic principles. Thank you!
Navalny Couldn’t Be Freed Until Gershkovich Was Kidnapped.
Gershkovich Couldn’t Be Freed Until Navalny Was Dead.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/opinion/evan-gershkovich-release.html
M. GESSEN Aug. 2, 2024
You know who was Secretary of State during the Illegals Program prisoner swap? Clinton.
You know who was targeted by a couple of the Illegals? Clinton.
She learned a lot the hard way.
Congratulations to the Biden Administration! Good news and compassion have chased all updates about “The Ear” from the news.
I love the sly smiles of Harris as she greets the released Putin political prisoners, and most of all, the genuinely happy look on Biden’s face as he looks back at the happy reunions taking place on the tarmac. A picture is worth………….
CNN — And Vladimir Kara-Murza, a green-card holder also released in Thursday’s exchange, offered an emotional thank you to the president for negotiating his release.
“No word is strong enough about this, I was sure I was going to die in prison, because I don’t believe what’s happening,” he told the president. “I still think it’s a—I still think I’m sleeping in my prison cell in Omsk instead of hearing your voice. But I just want you to know that you’ve done a wonderful thing by saving so many people. I think there are 16 of us on a plane. Again, I still can’t believe it’s happening. So I just wanted to say that I don’t think that there are many things more important than saving human lives.”
“.. come on dear, wake up dear.. Mother! .. come on dear .. So! this was all a dream?
.. no dear, this is the dream, you’re still in the cell”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYV-qYeWPkk
OT: Vice President Harris has just passed the threshold required for the party nomination. The vote will be finalized on Monday evening when the roll call is formally closed.
“I am honored to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States.”
Kamala Harris noted that it was the “tireless” work of the Democratic party’s delegates, state leaders and staff that was “pivotal in making this moment possible”.
“Your dedication cannot be overstated,” she said.
“We love our country, we believe in the promise of America, and that’s what this campaign is about.”
Harris said she will officially accept the party’s nominee next week once the voting process ends, but that she is “happy” that she has enough delegates to secure the nomination.
“Later this month, we will gather in Chicago, united as one party, where we’re going to have an opportunity to celebrate this historic moment together.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/aug/02/harris-trump-election-campaign-fundraising-
“I feel joy at my friend Evan Gershkovich’s release. But the anger lingers”
Margaret Sullivan
The Guardian
August 2, 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/02/evan-gershkovich-prisoner-swap
Apparently, Bloomberg broke the embargo and published this news before the U.S. hostages were actually back on U.S. soil.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/bloombergs-risky-embargo-breaking-evan-gershkovich-scoop.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crg55g4z526o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyMCfitRFHE
So here’s a little thought I would like to throw at the wall.
Evan G is getting virtually all the publicity in this exchange. Paul Whelan who has been in Russian custody for something like 6 1/2 years is really flying below the radar for the most part.
Whelan is often referred to as “former Marine Whelan” or “ex-Marine Whelan”. There’s not a ton of info about Whelan out there about him, but we know a few things. This is all from just Wikipedia.
We know that Whelan was a Marine from 2003 to 2008 and served in Iraq. Somewhere along the way he was arrested for multiple counts related to larceny, including three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another’s social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment, and theft of something like $10,000. He was court-martialed as a result and got a bad conduct discharge, affectionately known as a Big Chicken Dinner, which I believe means you serve out your punishment before you are discharged.
After that, he goes back to Kelly Services where he was an IT manager, serves in that capacity until 2010 and then moves on to be director of global security and investigations for BorgWarner. In those roles Whelan developed “contacts with the U.S. intelligence community, federal agents and foreign embassies” traveled to Russia several times, and made appearances on a Russian social media website. He supported Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election; following Trump’s victory, he posted in Russian Президент Трyмп Вперед!! (“President Trump Onward!!”). Then he was ultimately arrested in 2018.
How does a guy with all the charges against him and convictions while he was a Marine pass a background check for the positions he had at Kelly Services and BorgWarner ?
I’m guessing there’s a lot more to Whelan than simply being an ex- or former Marine. I would love to be a fly on the wall at his debriefing when he came home. And I wonder why Trump was so pissed that Biden got Whelan and the others back home before the election.
[Moderator’s note: see your comment at 10:57 pm in this thread regarding your username. /~Rayne]