The swap was the result of a yearslong effort that began in 2021. It was Russian President Vladimir Putin who approached President Joe Biden and suggested they keep a back channel open for future prisoner swap negotiations, The Wall Street Journal reported .
Biden was reportedly reluctant to agree to the deal.
Just weeks after Gershkovich was detained, the State Department’s chief hostage negotiator, Roger Carstens, met with a Bulgarian official who had a connection to Putin. The two arrived for a reservation under a fake name and exchanged cocktail napkins covered with names of Russian prisoners around the globe. They discussed which ones would be suitable trades for Whelan, Gershkovich and others.
At times, it felt like those deals would fall apart. Whelan’s freedom was supposed to be tied to that of Brittney Griner, a WNBA star who was the center of a separate Russian prisoner exchange in 2022.
However, Russian officials pulled Whelan out of the deal suddenly and devastated the man’s family, Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., told NewsNation.
“We were one-upped at the last minute, and a decision had to be made,” she said.
Amid the celebrations of this week’s exchange, a somber truth remains: Several U.S. nationals continue to be detained in Russia . Among them is Marc Fogel, a former school teacher serving a 14-year sentence. He was convicted in 2002 of possessing marijuana that he said was medicinal.
Members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation have been calling on the Biden administration to include Fogel in any prisoner swap with Russia.
It’s become increasingly common for Russian officials to arrest Americans in the wake of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
NewsNation digital reporter Katie Smith contributed to this report.
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