INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The historic prisoner swap with Russia that freed U.S
Joe Biden an hour before he dropped his reelection bid.Biden welcomed the families of the three U.S
resident to the White House Thursday, just as the release was taking place in Ankara.After placing an emotional phone call to their loved
ones from the Oval Office, they appeared with the president in front of journalists.Asked what he'd told the newly liberated Americans,
Biden answered: "I said, 'Welcome almost home.'"But the smiles hid the pain of waiting during long months of feverish negotiations.The White
Radio Liberty reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, and U.S
green card holder Vladimir Kara-Murza, an outspoken Putin critic.This meant high-level talks with Russia at a time when East-West relations
are in open conflict over the Ukraine war.But it also meant, say U.S
officials, leaning hard on European allies reluctant to give into Moscow's demands for getting back a string of Russian citizens imprisoned
stunned the world by announcing that he would no longer stand in November's election.Holed up in his Delaware beach home with Covid, he was
about to release his shock statement
statement, he was on the phone with his Slovenian counterpart, urging them to make the final arrangements and to get this deal over the
finish line," a senior U.S
official told reporters.Slovenia later freed two of the Russians, who had been convicted by a court of spying.But no one knew for certain
that the deal would go through until the very end.In a sign of the strain on negotiators and families alike, Biden's National Security
Advisor Jake Sullivan choked up on the White House podium as he welcomed what he called a "good day.""We held our breath and crossed our
fingers until just a couple of hours ago," he said.The process leading to Thursday's news began all the way back in 2018 when Whelan was
arrested and Donald Trump was U.S
president.Not only was Whelan not freed, but then Gershkovich was arrested while reporting in Yekaterinburg in March, 2023
Suddenly "these efforts were obviously made more complicated," Sullivan said.In what critics describe as state-sponsored hostage-taking,
Moscow's biggest condition was the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian jailed in Germany for brazenly assassinating a former Chechen rebel
commander in Berlin in 2019.Germany balked at giving up a hitman who had carried out such a brazen murder on its soil.To persuade Berlin,
Sullivan said, "required extensive diplomatic engagement with our German counterparts, starting at the top with the president."Then in
Thursday had also been on the U.S
official added.By coincidence, Gershkovich's mother and father were meeting with Sullivan at the White House that same day
It's "going to be a little bit more of a rocky path," he told them.The breakthrough came during Oval Office talks between German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz and Biden in April."Chancellor Scholz responded to the president saying, 'For you, I will do this,'" added the U.S
official.Biden on Thursday thanked Scholz, praising the "bold and brave" decisions by allies.And once the deal was outlined, a careful
