August 2, 2024

Friday, August 2, 2024 Annette’s News Roundup.

Joe is always busy.

Russia freed wrongly convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as part of the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, in which he and more than a dozen others jailed by the Kremlin were exchanged for Russians held in the U.S. and Europe, including a convicted murderer.

Gershkovich and other Americans left Russian aircraft at roughly 11:20 a.m. ET at an airport in Turkey’s capital, Ankara. Gershkovich was then transported to an aircraft lounge on a Turkish bus. Russia had kept the 32-year-old behind bars for more than a year on a false allegation of espionage. It sentenced him in a hurried and secret three-day trial to 16 years in a high-security penal colony.

Moscow also released former Marine Paul Whelan, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British-Russian dissident and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, sentenced to 25 years in prison on treason-related charges. Russia also released a number of political dissidents.

The sweeping deal involved 24 prisoners and at least six countries, and came together after months of negotiations at the highest levels of governments in the U.S., Russia and Germany, whose prisoner, Russian hit man Vadim Krasikov, emerged as the linchpin to the arrangement.

“The deal that secured their freedom was a feat of diplomacy,” President Biden said moments after their release. “Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over.”

White House officials, U.S. diplomats and personnel from the CIA had crisscrossed Europe and the Middle East looking for friendly governments willing to release the Russian spies in their custody in return for Americans held by the Kremlin.

Biden—about an hour before he notified the world he was dropping out of the presidential race on July 21—called the prime minister of Slovenia, whose country was contributing two convicted Russian spies to the swap, to secure the pardon necessary for the deal to proceed. CIA Director William Burns traveled to Turkey last week to meet his counterpart there and finalize the logistics for the swap.

At the center of the deal was Krasikov, a convicted murderer that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been pushing to free since 2021. The former intelligence officer, a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war, had shot and killed a rebel leader in a Berlin park, and was serving a life sentence.

The exchange is emblematic of a new era of state-sponsored hostage-taking by autocratic governments seeking leverage over rivals. It was negotiated as tensions soared between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine.

It also offers sobering evidence of the asymmetry between the U.S. and Russia in this new, piratical order. Putin can order foreigners plucked from restaurants and hotels and given lengthy prison sentences on spurious charges—something an American leader can’t do.

As the U.S. sought over the course of a year to extract Gershkovich, Whelan and others without offering Krasikov in return, senior Russian intelligence officials had made clear there was no deal without him. German officials eventually agreed, extracting their own price of a dozen Russian prisoners in return.

The Biden administration has pursued a series of large prisoner swaps with hostile countries, including last year extracting 10 Americans and a fugitive from Venezuela and a major deal with Iran in which the U.S. released billions of dollars in frozen revenue. Critics have questioned whether such deals encourage the arrest of more Americans.

Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said in an interview that the president “is willing to take the hard decision to make sure that you get innocent people home, and they are going to do their damndest to do that, even if they have to pay a price.”

The State Department classifies a number of countries, including Russia and North Korea, as posing such a serious risk of detention that it discourages Americans from visiting. Privately, U.S. officials call them “abductor states” and fear their number will grow unless there are new measures to deter them.

The U.S. designated Gershkovich and Whelan as “wrongfully detained,” which commits the government to work toward their release.

Thursday’s elaborate swap happened five months after the unexpected death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison camp in February. The U.S. and Germany had initially hoped that Navalny could be released in a broad agreement that began taking shape earlier this year, after Biden invited German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the White House.

The two countries regrouped after Navalny’s death, assembling a package through paper-only draft proposals, hand delivered from Sullivan’s office to his counterpart in Germany. Officials from Biden and Scholz on down tried for weeks to overcome the logistical hurdles of such a large trade.

Putin and other officials had been increasingly vocal about doing a prisoner swap for Gershkovich and others since late last year. In a February interview with Tucker Carlson, Putin indicated he especially wanted Krasikov, who gunned down a rebel leader in broad daylight in a public park in the heart of the German capital in 2019.

Gershkovich—the first foreign correspondent charged with espionage in Russia since the Soviet Union collapsed—was detained by Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, in March 2023, while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg, about 900 miles east of Moscow.

Prosecutors falsely said Gershkovich was gathering information about a defense contractor for the CIA. In fact, he was on assignment for the Journal. Gershkovich, the Journal and the U.S. government have all vehemently denied the accusation against him.

Gershkovich’s trial, condemned by Washington as a sham, was held in secret, and Russian authorities haven’t publicly released any evidence to back their assertions.

Gershkovich’s court appearances—during which he was often photographed smiling—became front-page news across America and Europe. Well-wishers raised banners at Major League Baseball games and Premier League soccer matches, calling for his release.

Journalists and celebrity news presenters from Carlson to CNN anchor Jake Tapper spoke out on his behalf.

Supporters received upbeat and joke-filled letters from Gershkovich, written in his 9-by-12-foot cell at Moscow’s infamous Lefortovo prison, where Soviet interrogators once tortured and murdered alleged “class enemies.”

Whelan, the longest-serving American deemed unlawfully detained in Russia, had also become a high-profile concern for Washington.

Included in Thursday’s swap also was Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist. The mother of two adolescent girls was detained last year for failing to register her American passport when she entered Russia on a visit to her ailing and elderly mother.

Russian authorities opened a new criminal case against Kurmasheva, a dual U.S.-Russian national, in December over a book she helped edit that criticizes the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She was eventually charged with spreading false information about Russia’s military, before being abruptly convicted after a secret trial and sentenced on July 19.

Kurmasheva has denied the charges against her through her lawyer and family. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and her family say she was targeted because she is a journalist and U.S. citizen.

Her husband, Pavel Butorin, said in a post on X after her sentencing that he and his daughters “know Alsu has done nothing wrong. And the world knows it too. We need her home.”

Other freed Russians included a suspected intelligence officer who had been living undercover in Norway’s Arctic north. Poland freed a Russian-born Spanish journalist charged with espionage. The U.S. freed a Russian businessman convicted of stealing millions from U.S. companies.

Among the Russian political prisoners freed is Lilia Chanysheva, who was close to Navalny. Americans left behind in Russian prisons include Marc Fogel, a history teacher at the high school where U.S. Moscow embassy staff sent their children. He is serving 14 years in a penal colony. He was arrested in 2021 for carrying less than an ounce of medical marijuana. He said he had intended to use the drug for medical purposes to treat chronic pain.

The U.S. has sought to free him on “humanitarian grounds.” His family has said he has suffered from neuropathy and has a hip replacement making him vulnerable to falls.(WSJ)

The President spoke on the release of Americans held by Russia.👇 10 minutes

Do you know what a lame duck is? Clearly Joe Biden doesn’t.

One more thing. Or two.

Have you ever seen a National Security Advisor cry?

Meet Biden-Harris advisor Jake Sullivan.👇
Touch.👇 Sullivan: If you had not had Joe Biden sitting in the Oval Office, I don't think this would've happened.

The moral of the story. Trump separates families. Biden brings them together.

The President and Vice President greeted the returning prisoners when they landed on American soil in Andrews Air Force Base last night.

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Kamala is always busy.

The Vice President’s Day.

The Vice President spoke on the release of Americans held by Russia.

Full address

“As President Biden announced earlier today, American citizens Paul, Evan, Aslu, and green-card holder Vladimir, who were unjustly held in Russia, will soon be re- -- reunited with their loved ones.

They and their families have shown incredible courage in the face of atrocious and devastating circumstances.

Russian authorities arrested, convicted them in sham trials, and sentenced them to long prison terms. This has been an appalling perversion of justice.

Over many years, President Biden and I and our team have engaged in complex diplomatic negotiations to bring these wrongfully detained Americans home. We never stopped fighting for their release. And today, in spite of all of their suffering, it gives me great comfort to know that their horrible ordeal is finally over.

This exchange also includes the release of Russian political prisoners, including those who worked with Aleksey Navalny.

Earlier today, I spoke with the Aleksey's widow, Yulia, to discuss the significance of their release. And as I told her -- this being an additional time from previous conversations with her -- the United States stands with all of those who are fighting for freedom in Russia.

As we celebrate today's news, we must also keep front of mind that there are other Americans that are unjustly being held in places around the world, and we will never stop fighting for their release.

As vice president, it has been my honor to work alongside our president, Joe Biden, to bring home more than 70 Americans in the last three and a half years. And we will never waver in our commitment to bring home every American who has been wrongfully detained or held hostage.

That is my solemn commitment to my fellow Americans, which I will always honor.”

Speaking on Wednesday night in Houston at a convention of one of the nation’s most prominent Black sororities, before an audience of thousands of Black women clad in gold blazers, Ms. Harris delivered a glimpse of how she might handle the crude and racist attacks from Mr. Trump that seem likely to continue over the next three months of a turbocharged presidential campaign.

With careful precision, the vice president acknowledged his statements, made at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists, and condemned his behavior. But although she often casts herself as a fighter eager to confront Mr. Trump, she showed restraint on Wednesday, refusing to engage in a debate with a white man critiquing her Blackness.

“It was the same old show,” she said. “The divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”

Her remarks on Wednesday night suggest that when Ms. Harris does engage this time around, she will focus on Mr. Trump’s divisiveness, casting herself by contrast as a figure of unity and progress, political strategists said. (New York Times).

The Vice President was in Houston to deliver the eulogy for Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. The President was there too. 15 minutes.

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Your Daily Reminder.

Trump is a convicted felon.

On May 30th, he was found guilty on 34 felony counts by the unanimous vote of 12 ordinary citizens.

The Convicted Felon Donald J. Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. He will now be sentenced sometime around September 18th.

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Can Trump vote in the 2024 election?

Yes, unless he is incarcerated for his felonies in New York at the time of the election or convicted of a felony in another jurisdiction that takes away his right to vote in that jurisdiction. Trump is a Florida resident, and Florida law says that a person convicted in another state can vote in Florida if they are allowed to vote in that other state. Since he was convicted in a New York state court, his eligibility to vote in Florida is governed by New York’s law, which allows everyone who’s not currently serving a sentence in prison to vote.

According to the Florida Division of Elections, “a felony conviction in another state makes a person ineligible to vote in Florida only if the conviction would make the person ineligible to vote in the state where the person was convicted.”

Trump has been convicted of felonies in New York and under New York state law, so New York law will determine his eligibility to vote in Florida. Under New York law, a person convicted of a felony is disenfranchised only while incarcerated for that felony. Thus, Trump will be able to vote as long as he is not incarcerated for his New York felonies at the time of the election. (source. Brennan Center for Justice).

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Olympics Update.

Katie Ledecky.

PARIS -- Katie Ledecky is now the most decorated American woman in Olympic history.

With a silver medal Thursday in the 4x200 meter relay, Ledecky won her 13th medal, breaking a tie with swimmers Natalie Coughlin, Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres.

Ledecky has eight golds, four silvers and one bronze in her Olympic career. The eight golds are just one shy of the women's record, held by Larisa Latynina, a gymnast from the Soviet Union whose final Olympics was in Tokyo (1964).

The 27-year-old Ledecky also becomes the most decorated woman in swimming history, regardless of country, and is second only in the Olympic pool to American icon Michael Phelps, who has 28 medals all-time.

Ledecky did not speak to the media after Thursday's race, as she is swimming in a qualifying event for the 800-meter freestyle on Friday afternoon. That is her final individual event in Paris. Should she qualify, the final is on Saturday. (source. ESPN).

Simone Biles. GOAT.

American gymnast, Simone Biles won Gold in the Paris Olympics All-Around Final for the second time. Team mate Sunisa Lee took the bronze. The gold was Biles’s ninth Olympic medal.

Team USA women’s basketball.

Team USA women’s basketball defeated Belgium 87-74. Their next match, the quarterfinals will have the Americans play Germany on Sunday at 11:15 a.m. ET.

Track and Field beginning.

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