Two years, secret talks, high stakes: The long road to prisoners deal

The deal between Russia and the West followed a tumultuous, dramatic path until its completion on Thursday.

British Broadcasting CorporationWatchHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureTravelEarthVideoLiveHomeNewsIsrael-Gaza WarWar in UkraineUS ElectionUS & CanadaUKUK PoliticsEnglandN. IrelandN. Ireland PoliticsScotlandScotland PoliticsWalesWales PoliticsAfricaAsiaChinaIndiaAustraliaEuropeLatin AmericaMiddle EastIn PicturesBBC VerifySportBusinessExecutive LoungeTechnology of BusinessWomen at the HelmFuture of BusinessInnovationTechnologyScience & HealthArtificial IntelligenceAI v the MindCultureFilm & TVMusicArt & DesignStyleBooksEntertainment NewsTravelDestinationsAfricaAntarcticaAsiaAustralia and PacificCaribbean & BermudaCentral AmericaEuropeMiddle EastNorth AmericaSouth AmericaWorld’s TableCulture & ExperiencesAdventuresThe SpeciaListEarthNatural WondersWeather & ScienceClimate SolutionsSustainable BusinessGreen LivingVideoLiveLive NewsLive SportHomeNewsSportBusinessInnovationCultureTravelEarthVideoLiveAudioWeatherNewslettersTwo years, secret talks, high stakes: How prisoner swap deal was struckGetty ImagesWhen a notorious Russian assassin and an American newspaper correspondent boarded separate planes in Turkey on Thursday, it marked the culmination of a secretive, dramatic prisoner swap deal between Russia and the West that was years in the making.

The origins of this deal, which involved two dozen prisoners, can be traced back to 2022. But behind-the-scenes negotiations between Russia, the US and four European countries ramped up earlier this year before intensifying in recent weeks as a final agreement came into view for all sides.

Those negotiations were at times feverish and testing. They also came as US-Russia tensions soared over the Ukraine war. "It was the culmination of many rounds of complex, painstaking negotiations over many, many months," Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser who played a critical role in the deal, said shortly after the exchange.

Senior White House officials provided a detailed timeline of events in a call with reporters, including from the BBC's US partner CBS, on Thursday. They said the first hint that Moscow may have been open to a deal came in the autumn of 2022.

The US and Russia had been negotiating the release of Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who was arrested for possessing cannabis oil and sent to a Russian penal colony. Griner was eventually released later that year in a high-profile swap for the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6p2p4e43lro

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