How Biden Persuaded Scholz to Release a Top Kremlin Assassin

The historic prisoner swap that resulted in the release of US journalist Evan Gershkovich and 15 others was made possible by a personal promise German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made to US President Joe Biden during a visit to the White House earlier this year. But until this afternoon, it was far from clear the plan would succeed.
During the Feb. 9 trip, Biden appealed to Scholz to release Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian murderer serving a life sentence in Germany, as part of the arrangement, which involved six countries and 24 people. 
The German leader was reticent at first: Krasikov had shot a Chechen rebel in 2019 in broad daylight in Berlin’s Tiergarten park, supposedly at the personal order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the end, Scholz conceded, based on a warm relationship with the US president that has led the chancellor to describe Biden as a close friend.
“It was two guys actually trying to figure out a solution,” US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday after the deal was unveiled. “That was the nature of all of the conversations, and ultimately, the chancellor was able to say to the president, ‘Let’s do this.’”
Scholz had agreed to the prisoner swap on the assumption that it would also involve Russian activist Alexey Navalny, who died a week later while imprisoned in Russia. 
On the day of Navalny’s death, Feb. 16, Sullivan happened to be meeting with Gershkovich’s parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, a senior US administration official said. The Wall Street Journal reporter was then being held in Russia on charges of espionage.
The national security team worried that Navalny’s death would impact their efforts to secure the release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, another American held prisoner in Russia, the official said. But Sullivan stressed to Evan Gershkovich’s parents that he still saw a path forward.
Shortly after, Putin made clear in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that any deal would be contingent on Krasikov’s release. “We have certain conditions that are being discussed through channels between special services,” Putin said. “I believe an agreement can be reached.” 
In April, Sullivan drafted a proposal for Scholz on Biden’s behalf that reflected more than a year’s worth of work by the White House national security team, according to the senior US official. 
Meanwhile, German officials repeatedly denied reports that Krasikov might be part of a deal. Scholz declined to comment on the matter whenever he was asked about it.
Final arrangements came together in late July, after Biden called Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob urging him to help seal the deal by releasing two Russians prisoners, according to a senior administration official.
It was an intense day for the 81-year-old president. About an hour after the call on July 21, Biden released a statement announcing that he would end his reelection campaign.
Germany’s government finally broke its silence Thursday evening. Scholz’s spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced the prisoner swap, saying the decision hadn’t been easy for the German government. 
He attributed the move to the obligation to protect German citizens — five of whom was released as part of the arrangement — as well as “solidarity with the US.”
“I owe a great sense of gratitude to the chancellor,” Biden said Thursday from the White House. “The demands they were making of me required me to get some significant concessions from Germany, which they originally concluded they could not do because of the person in question.”
With assistance from Jordan Fabian.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.