In a secret negotiation amid an international crisis that led to the release of two prisoners on a runway, the United States and Russia revived a tradition dating back to the Cold War on Wednesday through a prisoner exchange. While the West continues to impose sanctions on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. emphasized that it would not engage in any diplomatic communications with Moscow. However, this exchange demonstrates that the two powers still maintain a relationship on specific issues.
Russian television showed former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed (30 years old) wearing a coat as he exited a small truck alongside three Russian soldiers on what appears to be an airport runway. The plane headed to Turkey, which has not banned its airspace to Russian flights, unlike European Union countries. Reed was exchanged for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted of drug trafficking and was imprisoned in the United States.
Trevor's father, Joey Reed, stated that Trevor was transferred to a prison in Moscow earlier this week and that the exchange took place on a runway in Turkey. "The American plane stopped next to the Russian plane, and the prisoners were released simultaneously, just like in the movies," he added.
The agreement was made despite the fact that the U.S. embassy in Moscow is nearly empty, as Washington has long complained about Russian restrictions on its personnel. Before the Cold War ended in 1991, the two powers would exchange prisoners at night on the Glienicke Bridge in Berlin. The bridge, known as the "Bridge of Spies," connected the American sector in West Berlin to the city of Potsdam in formerly East Germany over the Havel River.
One of the most famous exchanges took place in 1986 when prominent Soviet dissident Nathan Sharansky was released in exchange for a Czechoslovakian citizen and his wife accused of spying for Moscow. Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine, was sentenced in July 2020 by a Russian court to nine years in prison for assaulting a police officer while under the influence of alcohol, a charge he denied. His release is not of the same significance as Sharansky's, and it is unlikely to have major political repercussions.
Donald Jensen, a former member of the U.S. embassy in Moscow, said, "I believe neither side truly wants to cut off relations completely." He added, "Let’s be frank, prisoner exchanges are important for families, but they are relatively minor in the realm of international relations."
Prisoner exchanges were on the agenda during the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva in June 2021. However, the timing, amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, may suggest that Putin can still conduct business with the United States, according to Jensen. For Russia, such an exchange reminiscent of the Cold War is also important "for its image of being on equal footing with the United States, and that they are both major powers deciding such matters," Jensen added.
The Biden administration considers it essential to maintain at least some relationships with Russia in key areas, especially regarding diplomacy related to Iran.
The release of American prisoners globally is a priority in the foreign policy of all U.S. administrations. Therefore, the fate of Americans currently held by Iran weighs heavily on negotiations to revive the international nuclear deal made in 2015 with Tehran. In 2019, despite high tension, senior American and Iranian officials met in Zurich to oversee another exchange on the airport runway. Last month, a senior U.S. delegation also helped secure the release of Americans from another hostile government, Venezuela.
There are two other Americans imprisoned in Russia: Paul Whelan, a former security director for an auto parts company, and Brittney Griner, a basketball player accused of drug possession. Another exchange of this kind may take place. The last prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow occurred in 2010 in Vienna and involved Anna Chapman, a young Russian who lived in New York and was arrested for espionage, and Sergei Skripal, a former Russian intelligence officer and double agent for Britain. His poisoning in 2018 in southern England, where he had sought refuge, led to a major diplomatic crisis with Russia, which has always denied attempting to kill the former spy.
