Breaking Good – Digby's Hullabaloo

Only Biden could fix it

Checkpoint Charlie (1963) was on Friedrichstrasse, near Kochstrasse. It was the only crossing between West Berlin and East Berlin that could be used by Americans and other foreigners, and by members of the Allied Forces. The other six checkpoints were for residents of West Berlin or West Germany. Photo by Roger Wollstadt – Flickr: Berlin – Checkpoint Charlie (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Checkpoint Charlie no longer exists, but dramatic prisoner exchanges between NATO countries and the former Soviet Union still occur, albeit rarely. The largest prisoner swap since the end of the Cold War is happening right now.

CNN:

There is expected to be a large-scale prisoner swap between the US and Russia, including a number of Americans, according to a source familiar.

The parties have agreed to a prisoner transfer and that prisoners are expected to soon be in US custody, according to a senior administration official.

Some of the Americans that have been discussed as part of the negotiations are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan are expected to be a part of the swap, according to a senior administration official said.

Thursday’s swap comes after months of quiet and complicated negotiations between Moscow and Washington, which included US diplomats scouring the globe for offers to entice Russia to release the Americans.

Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg. He was found guilty of espionage by a Russian court on July 19 and sentenced to 16 years in prison in a trial that the US government, his newspaper and supporters have denounced as a sham.

Whelan – who is a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen – was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 by Russian authorities who alleged he was involved in an intelligence operation.

Still more:

Jonathan Franks, the spokesperson for the “Bring Our Families Home Campaign,” a coalition of family members of Americans detained abroad, said both Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan’s expected release “is going to be a legacy piece for President Biden, adding the administration has “brought home a historic number of people” during his administration.

Putin will do that for me but not for anyone else. pic.twitter.com/7IAnjeleK2
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 1, 2024

The nice thing about not running for reelection is you can make unpopular decisions — like pleading out the 9/11 masterminds and trading spies for journalists — you might otherwise delay.

Now make get cannabis legalization done (I know he's working on it).
— emptywheel (srian) (@emptywheel) August 1, 2024

No news as yet who is swapping who for whom., but seven countries are reportedly involved.

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