Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at a historic U.S.-Russia prisoner swap, Israeli assassinations as Iran threatens retaliation, and a plea deal for three accused 9/11 plotters.
Sign up to receive World Brief in your inbox every weekday.
Sign up to receive World Brief in your inbox every weekday.
Freedom at Last
Two dozen prisoners detained across seven countries were exchanged on Thursday in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the Cold War. Russia and Belarus released 16 people held on what U.S. and other Western countries considered politically motivated charges in exchange for eight people detained by the United States, Germany, Norway, and Slovenia. The exchange took place at an airport in Ankara, Turkey.
Among those released were Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, both of whom have been the subjects of exchange talks for months. Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting assignment in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg and accused of spying for the CIA. Last month, he was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison, becoming the first U.S. reporter to be put on trial for spying since the Cold War.
Whelan—a joint U.S., Irish, British, and Canadian citizen—was arrested at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 for alleged involvement in an intelligence operation. He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years at a labor camp in Mordovia for espionage. Both Gershkovich and Whelan have denied the spying accusations.
Other key prisoners released in the deal include Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was detained in June 2023 for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian army; Russian opposition politician Ilya Yashin; and Washington Post columnist and dual Russian-British citizen Vladimir Kara-Murza, who received a record 25-year prison sentence last April for alleged treason and criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In return, Russia obtained the release of eight people, including Col. Vadim Krasikov—a Russian secret service operative who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 assassination of Georgian national Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who helped fight Russian forces in Chechnya. Krasikov was originally considered for an exchange with dissident Alexei Navalny before his death at a Russian penal colony in February.
The swap comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow as Russia continues its two-year war against Ukraine. “I would counsel anyone to be cautious in surmising from this that it’s some sort of breakthrough in the relationship or that it portends some sort of detente with Russia,” a senior U.S. administration official told Foreign Policy. “That’s not going to be the case, given what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin continues to do inside Ukraine.”
But experts predict that Thursday’s deal could provide Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden with diplomatic victories. For Putin, the deal demonstrates his loyalty to bringing home Russian agents arrested abroad and paves the way for future prisoner swaps with Ukraine. For Biden, it highlights his long-time pledge to support Moscow’s pro-democracy movement and rescue imprisoned U.S. citizens.
The two nations have engaged in prisoner swaps in recent years, though none as large as Thursday’s. In April 2022, the Kremlin released U.S. Marine Trevor Reed for Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko. And in December 2022, Moscow exchanged U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The Committee to Protect Journalists recorded at least 22 journalists imprisoned in Russia as of December 2023. And almost 800 people are currently imprisoned inside Russia on politically motivated or religious charges, according to human rights group Memorial.
Today’s Most Read
What We’re Following
Assassination intelligence. Israel confirmed on Thursday that an Israeli airstrike last month killed Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. More than 90 people, including displaced civilians in nearby tents, were also killed in the strike, according to local authorities at the time. Deif was considered one of the organizers of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which killed around 1,200 people.
His death is “a significant milestone in the process of dismantling Hamas as a military and governing authority in Gaza,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X.
The announcement comes one day after an attack largely believed to have been planned by Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Tehran for the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian. That assassination followed Israeli forces killing senior Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut on Tuesday. Shukr was deemed responsible for a strike on Saturday that killed 12 children in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
In response to Haniyeh’s killing in Tehran, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday ordered a direct assault on Israel. Top Iranian officials met with representatives from key regional allies on Thursday to discuss retaliation options. Members from Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Yemen’s Houthi movement, and Iraqi militias attended, all of whom are backed by Iran. It is unclear what the response might look like or when it may take place, but Iranian Gen. Mohammad Baqeri said Israel “will undoubtedly regret” its actions.
Sept. 11 plea deal. Alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and two other defendants at Guantánamo Bay agreed to a plea deal on Wednesday for their involvement in the deadly attacks on U.S. soil in 2001. Under the agreement, Mohammed as well as Walid bin Attash and Mustafa al-Hawsawi will face sentences of up to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.
Many family members of 9/11 victims wanted the perpetrators to face death, but as decades passed, lawyers increasingly believed that plea deals were the only way to resolve the cases. Much of this is because interrogators used brutal torture techniques, such as waterboarding, to gather information, making it inadmissible in court.
Two other accused conspirators remain in prison, with only one actually facing trial proceedings; last September, a judge deemed the other defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, mentally incompetent to stand trial.
High living costs. Thousands of young people took to the streets in Nigeria on Thursday to protest high costs of living. Nationwide demonstrations, touting #EndBadGovernanceinNigeria, are calling for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to lower prices on food and fuel.
Locals report police teargassing marchers, and security forces have blocked some pre-approved demonstration sites. The movement is expected to continue over the next 10 days, and safety at the marches remains a top concern. The protests carry the specter of mass demonstrations in 2020 that killed at least 56 Nigerians. And on Wednesday, an unrelated bombing at a café in Borno state killed at least 19 people, forcing the region to declare a 24-hour curfew.
Last year, Tinubu introduced economic reforms that increased food inflation to 40 percent and tripled food prices. Almost 40 percent of Nigerians—or around 87 million people—live in poverty, making it the world’s second-largest poor population, according to the World Bank.
Odds and Ends
Athletes at the 2024 Paris Olympics are showing the world that they have more to offer than just their sports skills. For Norwegian swimmer Henrik Christiansen, that includes his love for chocolate muffins, which he has posted at least nine videos of while in the Olympic village. Also in the food influencer game is Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa, whose sponsorship by Parmigiano Reggiano (or as we like to call it, “Big Parma”) has her modeling with huge wheels of parmesan cheese. British diver Tom Daley is unwinding during his time out of the water with a series of knitting projects. And U.S. gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik, aka “the pommel horse guy,” has become an internet sensation with his thick glasses and high-scoring performance.
Meanwhile, FP’s World Brief writer is currently on the couch eating chocolate and watching the women’s All-Around Gymnastics final.
The post Gershkovich, Whelan Freed in Large-Scale Russian Prisoner Swap appeared first on Foreign Policy.
