The prisoner exchange between the West and Russia is a diplomatic success, but the aftereffects are profound

On this day, Ankara Airport relived the heyday of the Glienicke Bridge, the famous “Bridge of Spies” between Berlin and Potsdam, where prisoners were exchanged between the East and the West during the Cold War.

On Thursday, August 1, 24 people held in seven countries, including the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus, and two minors accompanying their parents, transited through the Turkish capital’s airport in the largest prisoner exchange since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991. They were welcomed at the highest levels of both sides. At Andrews Military Base near Washington, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris Waiting at the landing place Vladimir Putin welcomed back three Americans. At Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, Vladimir Putin held a bouquet of flowers and hugged eight Russians returning home, and Russian cameras also recorded their return.

Sixteen of them were detained in Russia and Belarus, including an American Evan Gershkovichthis Wall Street JournalCorrespondent in Moscow. In March 2023, he was arrested in Yekaterinburg and became the first Western journalist to be tried in Russia for espionage since the end of the Cold War. He was sentenced 16 years imprisonment After a swift trial on July 19, Gershkovich’s case apparently paved the way for a resolution. After the trial, the Kremlin could exchange Gershkovich for Russian prisoners held in Western countries. On the eve of the verdict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov personally confirmed that Moscow and Washington were discussing the issue at a high level.

Also released by Russia were former U.S. Marine Corps NCO Paul Whelan, who had been held since December 2018, and Russian-American journalist Arsu Kurmasheva, who had been held since October 2023, both accused of espionage. Opponents of Putin were also released from prison, including deputy chairman of the democratic movement “Open Russia” Vladimir Kara-Murza, co-chairman of the NGO “Memorial” Oleg Orlov, Moscow politician Ilya Yasin, former coordinators of Alexey Navalny’s movement Lilia Chanisheva and Ksenia Fadeeva, and artist Alexandra Skochlenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2023 for posting stickers in supermarkets condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In return, Putin got what he wanted, starting with the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian agent sentenced to life in prison in Germany in 2021 for the murder of a former Chechen separatist in a Berlin park two years earlier. The Russian president has repeatedly raised Krasikov’s case and said he would be willing to exchange the “patriot” for an American prisoner.

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