background
Russia and the USA have repeatedly exchanged prisoners, even in times of deep crises. Sometimes this happened quietly, but often in full public view. And the question always arose as to who benefited more from the deals.
Griner vs But
The exchange of Brittney Griner for Viktor But was the last spectacular deal of this kind between Russia and the USA. The Russian But was one of the most active arms dealers internationally until his imprisonment in 2008 and had supplied regimes and rebels in many conflict regions with weapons in the 1990s and 2000s – allegedly sometimes even to all sides in a conflict. But had always denied this, but was internationally regarded as a “merchant of death”. After his arrest in Thailand, he was extradited to the USA and sentenced to 25 years in prison there in 2012.
Compared to him, Griner spent a comparatively short time in Russian custody. The US basketball player, who had played for the Russian team UGMK Yekaterinburg in the US during off-season breaks since 2015, was arrested in February 2022 upon entering Moscow, a few days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, because, according to the authorities, she was carrying e-cigarette cartridges that contained 0.5 grams of hashish oil. For this, she was sentenced to nine years in prison in August 2022.
Griner's case was followed with great attention by the Western public. But her exchange for Viktor Bout in December 2022 was also criticized in the US because the US had not negotiated any more prisoners in exchange for Bout's release. Representatives of the Republican Party in particular viewed this as a bad deal given Bout's crimes and importance to Russia. This was precisely what pro-government commentators in Russia applauded.
Soldier versus pilot
Not every exchange between Russia and the United States makes headlines and is subject to widespread public attention. And the relevant negotiation channels are open even in times of the greatest international tensions.
One example of this is the exchange of a Russian pilot for a US soldier in April 2022, two months after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. At that time, US soldier Trevor Reed, who was alleged to have insulted and physically attacked police officers in Moscow in 2019 while under the influence of alcohol and was sentenced to nine years in prison for this, was exchanged via a third country. The US ambassador at the time described the proceedings and the verdict as completely “absurd”. In return, the US released Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and then extradited to the US. There he served a 20-year prison sentence for preparing to smuggle drugs into the US.
Chapman vs Skripal
Much more spectacular was a large-scale prisoner exchange in 2010, the consequences of which would cause a new international crisis years later. In July 2010, Russia released four suspected Western agents. Among them was the Russian secret service agent Sergei Skripal, who had been recruited by the British secret service in the 1990s and is said to have helped expose numerous Russian spies. He was exposed in Russia in 2004 and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2006.
At the time of the exchange, Skripal was unknown to the general public in Great Britain and the USA. The situation was different with Anna Chapman, who was released in return along with nine other agents. Chapman had only recently been arrested after years of observation with other members of an agent ring – until then she had lived in New York, disguised as a real estate agent. The fact that Chapman was only 28 years old at the time of her arrest and was described as attractive caused a stir in the tabloid press, drawing comparisons to the legendary spy Mata Hari. After her exchange in Russia, Chapman began a career as a TV presenter and took on a leading role in the youth organization of the Kremlin party United Russia.
Skripal's exchange, however, was accompanied by death threats from Vladimir Putin, then temporary Russian Prime Minister. Skripal settled in the British city of Salisbury, where he and his daughter were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok by Russian agents in 2015. Both survived, but the first attack with a chemical warfare agent on European soil since the Second World War triggered a massive diplomatic crisis between Great Britain and Russia. The identity of the assassins was later revealed by the research platform Bellingcat.
