On March 24, 2022, staff sorted out the American flag at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
On April 27, local time, the United States and Russia completed a prisoner exchange at an airport in Turkey that attracted the world's attention: in a brief ceremony described by the media of various countries as "full of Cold War rituals", Reed, a former US Marine detained by Russia, and Yaroshenko, a former Russian pilot detained by the United States, completed the exchange.
Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict on February 24, the United States and the West have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia. The Associated Press and other media reported that the relationship between the United States and Russia has fallen to a new low since the Cold War, so the sudden exchange of detainees is surprising.
On the same day, Reuters also quoted senior US government officials as saying that the United States and Russia have been intensively engaged in diplomatic contacts for several months, but only focus on the exchange of detainees, not the beginning of discussions on other matters, and this exchange does not mean that the US position on the Ukraine issue has changed.
U.S. Embassy in Russia, April 16, 2021, photographed in Moscow, The Russian capital. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
"Cold War Prisoner Exchange" in the Context of Cold Relations
Reid, a 30-year-old former U.S. Marine, was sentenced to nine years in prison for assaulting two Russian police officers after drinking alcohol at a party in Moscow in July 2020.
Yaroshenko, 52, is a Russian private pilot. In May 2010, he was lured by U.S. CIA agents in Liberia, West Africa, on charges of involvement in armed drug trafficking planned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Colombia, involving more than $100 million. In April 2011, Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison and has been held in a federal prison in Connecticut ever since.
Reid has denied all charges since his arrest, claiming that the Russian side is "political retaliation" and holding a hunger strike in November 2021, but to no avail.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, Reed's family tried to "take advantage" to get more attention from Reed, launching a petition in front of the White House on March 30, and then US President Biden received these people.
Yaroshenko's cause of action is less controversial, and his family has tried to urge early release on "humanitarian" grounds. During the Trump administration, the relationship between the United States and Russia was warm, and Yaroshenko's mother wrote to Trump to intercede, but then Trump took care of himself and the matter was not resolved.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, the relations between the United States and Russia further deteriorated, and after round after round of mutual expulsion and withdrawal of diplomats, the diplomatic presence of each other's countries was reduced to a better than nothing, but this did not prevent the completion of the prisoner exchange:
Witnessed by the television camera, Reed and Yaroshenko, dressed in civilian clothes, were boarded by several soldiers at the airports in Russia and the United States, flew to the Turkish airport one after another, and then "changed horses" and "returned to their respective homes" after exchanging planes.
Pedestrians walk past the Russian Foreign Ministry building in Moscow, the russian capital, on April 16, 2021. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
From the "Bridge of Spies" to the tarmac of the Turkish airport
During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union had a tense and hostile relationship, "the Cold War is not cold", and there are often important people who have to be saved, such as spies, pilots, and dissidents, who have to fall into each other's hands. For this reason, this "Cold War prisoner exchange" was once frequent and commonplace.
Because the exchange site was often set on the Havel River Grynick Bridge, which connected the American-occupied area of West Berlin with the East German city of Potsdam, the bridge was also known as the "Bridge of Spies".
From the erection of the Berlin Wall to its collapse, countless prisoners were exchanged through the "Bridge of Spies" or other locations. These included, on February 10, 1962, in exchange for Abebel, a Soviet ace spy who had been arrested in the United States after his identity was exposed, with Bowers, the pilot of a U2 spy plane shot down on its territory, and Pryor, an American student accused of espionage.
After the end of the Cold War, this "Cold War-style prisoner exchange" continued, but the frequency dropped sharply and the content was expanded. To this day, not only do spies, agents and other "official figures" continue to be filled with them, but criminals like Reed and Yaroshenko appear more and more frequently on the exchange list.
After all, the Cold War has become a "thing of the past", the Berlin Wall no longer exists, and the "Bridge of Spies" is of course no longer suitable for use as a "Cold War prisoner exchange" site, but more in neutral third-party occasions.
Prior to the Turkish airport exchange, in July 2010, the Us side exchanged 10 Russian spies in Austria for two other famous double agents arrested in Russia, Skripal.
In this exchange, the "blonde" Chapman exchanged by the Russian side developed into a highly exposed female Internet celebrity after returning to China, while the Us side exchanged Skripal suffered a bizarre nerve agent plot after settling in the United Kingdom, and even triggered a series of serious diplomatic crises between the West and Russia and became famous.
At a time when the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is in full swing and the relations between the United States and Russia are in danger, what is the motivation for not hesitating to put up a "big battle" to exchange prisoners?
Some analysts believe that the spy exchange between Russian President Putin and the West may be related to his long-term intelligence work and "incense love" for his former peers.
As for the United States, especially after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, it is easy for American citizens to be arrested in Russia and become hot spots, and a little carelessness may trigger a government public relations crisis.
Not only that, in the special period when the bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia is cold and it is difficult to see improvement in the short term, the "Cold War prisoner exchange" can create a "joint" opportunity for both sides not to trigger domestic criticism, so that the two sides can maintain the most basic mutual contact and transactions. After all, the United States and Russia still have to "discuss" some things, such as the Iran nuclear agreement.
But don't expect this "Cold War prisoner swap" to fundamentally soften and warm the tensions and tit-for-tat positions between each other. As one U.S. official put it, this "lowest-level deal" has "no" impact on bilateral relations, and "will in no way affect any measures and attitudes taken by the United States toward Russia as a result of the Ukraine crisis" and "does not imply the beginning of a broader dialogue, or even the beginning of a broader dialogue."
Written by/Tao Shorthouse (Columnist)
Editor/Rui He
Proofreading/Lin Zhao