National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that U.S. authorities were seeking the release of slain Russian oppositionist Alexei Navalny from Russia as part of a broader prisoner exchange effort with adversaries that led to the release of three Americans on Thursday.
Speaking at a White House press conference, Sullivan revealed information about the landmark agreement with the Kremlin that led to the release of wrongfully detained American journalist Evan Gershkovich, retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American radio journalist Ars Kurmasheva.
“We were working with our partners on a deal that would have included Alexei Navalny, and then unfortunately he passed away,” Sullivan explained.
“In fact, I met with Evan’s parents on the very day he died, and I told them that in the wake of that tragic news, the president is committed to seeing this through.”
Navalny, 47, who was one of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s biggest political opponents, was found dead in a Russian prison in western Siberia in February.
“Make no mistake: President Putin bears responsibility for Navalny’s death,” President Biden declared shortly after Navalny’s death. Many Western government officials and Russia experts similarly believe Moscow is to blame for Navalny’s death.
Putin has a long history of watching his enemies die under questionable circumstances.
Navalny fell ill after a suspected poisoning in 2020, was arrested shortly after returning to Russia and later sentenced to decades in prison on charges including embezzlement and extremism.
Western leaders, including the United States, have roundly condemned the charges against Navalny.
President Biden, 81, on Thursday hailed the prisoner swap deal as a “diplomatic feat” and spoke by phone with the three released Americans.
“All of them have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their suffering ends,” Biden declared in a statement.
As part of the exchange, which involved six countries and 24 prisoners, Russia managed to secure the repatriation of eight nationalities, including three incarcerated in US prisons (Vadim Konoshenok, Vladislav Klyushin and Roman Seleznyov), two from Slovenia, one from Norway, one from Poland and one from Germany, Vadim Krasikov.
Krasikov was a convicted murderer facing life imprisonment in Germany for the massacre of Georgians who defected and fought against Kremlin forces in Chechnya.
In an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in February, Putin made it clear he wanted Krasikov released.
German authorities alleged that the shooting of an opposition leader in a Berlin park in 2019 was ordered by Russia.
Observers have described the prisoner swap deal as one of the largest and most complex between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.
Biden met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House earlier this year as negotiators scrambled to hammer out some kind of agreement with Russia.
Vice President Kamala Harris also met with Scholz.
“It is difficult to deport a convicted criminal to secure the release of an innocent American, but sometimes we must choose between doing so or sending that person to spend the rest of their life in a hostile foreign prison,” Sullivan acknowledged to reporters.
Update on former Russian prisoner Evan Gershkovich
Sullivan became emotional at points during the news conference, something that is unusual for the 47-year-old.
In 2022, the administration won the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner in a controversial deal with notorious arms dealer Victor Bout, aka the “Merchant of Death.” Griner had been in custody for hash oil possession.
The agreement comes months after Russia launched an unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine, sending relations with the West plummeting to their lowest point since the Cold War.
On March 29, 2023, Moscow arrested Wall Street Journal reporter covering Russia, Gershkovich, on false espionage charges while on assignment in Yekaterinburg, and later sentenced him to 16 years in prison in a three-day secret trial.
In the end, he was held by the Russians for 491 days.
Consultations with Russia and other participants lasted several months.
U.S. Government
On the same day that Biden announced his shock decision to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, he called Slovenia’s prime minister to ask for pardons for two convicted Russian spies in order to secure the deal. The Wall Street Journal reported.
On the surface, that seemed to help close a delicate deal.
Whelan, 54, was detained in Russia in 2018 and faced a possible 16-year sentence on espionage charges.
Kurmaseva, 47, who helped edit a book that was a sharp critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, was convicted last month of spreading false information.
“[Biden’s] “Our goal is always to put the families who are enduring unimaginable ordeals first, and from the president on down, we are in regular contact with them,” Sullivan added of the families of the released Americans.
Photos were later released of the three standing proudly next to an American flag after their release. They are scheduled to land at Joint Base Andrews late Thursday afternoon.
