2024-08-02 03:08:02
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — After years behind bars and walls in U.S. prisons and Russian penal colonies, some inmates will suddenly find themselves free, an emotional moment that sets the stage for a war between Washington and Moscow. The long-term negotiations between the two countries have come to an end.
Sometimes, as released prisoners pass each other on the airport runway or on the Grönicke Bridge that connects West Berlin to Potsdam (as during the Cold War), they see others taking part in the exchange. During decades of prisoner exchanges, among those released were spies, journalists, drug and weapons traffickers, and even athletes.
Thursday’s historic exchange was a particularly complex affair, involving months of negotiations between several countries before planes ferried large numbers of prisoners to freedom.
In previous exchanges, it is worth mentioning:
Britney Griner and Victor Boot
On December 9, 2022, the WNBA star’s deal with a Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death” attracted attention and caused controversy because of its huge differences.
Griner was arrested 10 months ago upon arrival at Moscow airport when a vaporizer containing cannabis oil was found in her luggage. She was found guilty of drug charges and sentenced to nine years in prison, a very harsh sentence even in less tolerant Russia.
Bout was arrested in 2008 during a U.S. covert operation in Thailand after he offered to sell surface-to-air missiles to people posing as Colombian rebels. He was extradited to the United States and sentenced to 25 years in prison on multiple charges, including conspiring to murder an American citizen.
Greener’s reputation brought disrepute to his case, and the Biden administration worked to secure his release at Abu Dhabi airport. Critics say Washington gave in to political pressure and traded an arms dealer for a famous athlete.
Trevor Reed and Konstantin Yaroshenko
The exchange between Reid and Yaroshenko was notable because it took place against a backdrop of heightened tensions, just two months before Russia launched an all-out war against Ukraine.
Reed is a former U.S. Marine who was arrested in Moscow in 2019 on suspicion of drunken assault on a police officer. Reed refuted the charges, with then-U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan calling the case so ridiculous that “even the judge laughed”, but Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Yaroshenko, a pilot, was arrested in Liberia in 2010 for his role in a lucrative cocaine distribution scheme. He was extradited to the United States and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The exchange took place on April 7, 2022, at an airport in Turkey.
In June 2010, U.S. officials detained 10 Russians who were considered “sleeper agents” — people who were living under false identities without specific espionage missions, waiting to be activated if necessary. Apparently, most of the information they gathered wasn’t important.
The exception is Anna Chapman, who attracted tabloid attention because of her long red hair and model-like appearance.
The following month, in an unusual move, the Russians were exchanged at Vienna airport for four Russians imprisoned in their country, including Sergei Skripal, a double agent working for British intelligence. Skripal settled in Britain, where he and his daughter were nearly killed eight years later after being poisoned with a nerve agent that authorities blamed on Russia.
Rudolf Abel Francis Gary Powers
On February 10, 1962, Abel and Powers engaged in one of the most spectacular confrontations of the Cold War on the Glinicke Bridge connecting U.S.-occupied Berlin and East Germany.
Abel was the pseudonym of William Fisher, an Englishman who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1920s and participated in its intelligence work. In 1957, he was arrested on espionage charges and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
A high-altitude U-2 photoreconnaissance aircraft piloted by Powers was shot down over central Russia in 1960. The coin would have killed him if discovered, but he did not use it.
The 2015 film of the same name depicts exchanges on the so-called “Bridge of Spies.”
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