White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan became emotional and choked up during the daily briefing on Thursday as he described the effort to bring back American prisoners from Russia through a swap.
“Today — excuse me — today was a very good day,” Sullivan told reporters, celebrating the moment but also remembering the work that went into the expanded exchange and the suffering of the prisoners and their families.
He called it the result of “a monumental effort” by a range of aides and revealed details of conversations that had lasted for months, including how President Biden made a key phone call on the day he decided to abandon his bid to retain the White House.
Sullivan and his team have been involved in the effort since the beginning of the administration — Biden said the effort began before he took office. That has meant not just strategy sessions and “sidewalk” meetings with foreign counterparts, but also emotionally charged meetings and updates with desperate and frustrated family members seeking the return of their loved ones.
The historic deal freed 24 people, including 16 held in Russia, but not all of the Americans were released. Sullivan also confirmed that the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny — who suffered in a Russian penal colony above the Arctic Circle — was once part of the talks.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, became emotional as he spoke about the efforts to free Americans held in Russia. The historic exchange took place on Thursday
“We were working with our partners on a deal that would have included Alexey Navalny. Unfortunately, he died. In fact, the day he died, I saw Evan’s parents and told them that the president was determined to get this done, even in light of that tragic news,” he said, referring to the family of released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
The talks involved numerous countries and Sullivan personally thanked the leaders of Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey.
“We have completed one of the largest and certainly most complex exchanges in history,” Sullivan said.
‘I spent a lot of time with families, Evan and Paul [Whelan] and Alsu [Kurmasheva]”And usually, as you can imagine, those are difficult conversations. But not today. Today — excuse me. Today was a very good day,” Sullivan said, regaining his composure.
He could not say who decided to “go big” on the overarching deal, saying it was an “organic process involving many people within our government.”
President Biden spoke with family members of the detained Americans, and his aides briefed reporters on how the deal came about
He said Biden “really pushed us to think about what configuration would actually work to get this done.”
“So I don’t think this would have happened if Joe Biden hadn’t been in the White House,” he said.
He joked about his own emotions as he talked about how his family members received the news.
“I’ve been saving my tears for this stage. I’d like to take that off the record,” Sullivan joked, laughing.
“So the president invited the family members at the time we received the message from the airstrip in Ankara that the exchange was completed. He was able to let them know right away that the exchange was actually completed.”
He said negotiators were only sure the deal was done hours beforehand.
A key moment came in February when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told Biden he would allow the release of Russia’s leading candidate: Vadim Krasikov, a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in Berlin.
‘It was two guys actually trying to find a solution. That was the nature of all the conversations and eventually the chancellor was able to say to the president, ‘Let’s do this,’ he said.
Asked if Scholz told Biden, “I will do this for you,” Sullivan replied, “I can confirm he said that,” but would not provide further details.
Sullivan said his aides gained confidence after Biden’s July 21 phone call with the prime minister of Slovenia to make final arrangements (where two Russians were being held).
“We steadily gained confidence after the president’s call on July 21. But that confidence was always tempered by the reality that this was a fragile deal, a complex deal that could fall apart at any moment from multiple different directions. So we held our breath and crossed our fingers until a few hours ago,” he said.
The president himself held an event with family members of Americans held in Russia. He even held an awkward “Happy Birthday” sing-along for Miriam Butorin, the 13-year-old daughter of Alsu Kurmasheva, a freed Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
In response to a question from DailyMail.com, the president also defended the release of convicted hitman Vladimir Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder of a Chechen Georgian citizen in broad daylight in a Berlin park.
Asked how he felt about the decision to release the hitman who went unpunished for murder, Biden replied: “I brought innocent people home.”
