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U.S., Russia prisoner swap is the latest in a long history of exchanges between the world powers
Washington — In the largest international prisoner exchange since the Cold War, 24 prisoners were traded on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, on Thursday in a deal involving seven countries.
The complex deal, which secured the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan, was months in the making, with American and Western diplomats working for months to secure the release of 16 prisoners in exchange for eight individuals sought by Russia.
While high-profile prisoner trades have happened between Washington and Moscow for decades, they have, until recent years, typically involved spies. More recently, they’ve involved Americans who the U.S. considered to be wrongfully detained — former Marines, a journalist and a women’s basketball star.
Here’s a look at some of the notable exchanges:
Feb. 10, 1962
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The first major exchange between the U.S. and the Soviet Union took place more than 60 years ago on Glienicke Bridge, which connected West Berlin to East Germany and later became known as the “Bridge of Spies.”
The U.S. traded convicted Soviet spy Rudolf Abel for pilot Francis Gary Powers, whose spy plane had been shot down over the Soviet Union. As part of the February 1962 deal, Frederic Pryor, an American graduate student who had been detained in East Berlin on suspicion of spying, was also released.
Oct. 11, 1963
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The next year, the U.S. freed two alleged Soviet spies, Ivan Egorov and his wife Aleksandra, in exchange for two Americans imprisoned on espionage charges. The Americans freed were student Marvin Makinen, who was arrested in Kyiv in 1961, and Walter Ciszek, a Jesuit missionary arrested in the Soviet Union in 1941.
April 27, 1979
The Soviets released five dissidents, including Aleksandr Ginzburg, in exchange for two Russians convicted of spying in the U.S.
September 1986
Raphael GAILLARDE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
The U.S. made an exchange to secure the release of American journalist Nicholas Daniloff, who was arrested in Moscow on allegations of espionage. His brief detainment in a KGB prison was believed to be in retaliation for the arrest of accused Soviet spy Gennadi Zakharov. As part of the deal, Zakharov was allowed to plead no contest in court and was sent back to the Soviet Union, while imprisoned dissident leader Yuri Orlov was also released to the U.S.
July 9, 2010
U.S. Marshals via AP
One of the largest prisoner exchanges between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War occurred on the tarmac in Vienna, Austria. Washington handed over 10 Russian spies who had lived undercover in the U.S. for years until their arrests in 2010 by the FBI. In exchange, released four of its own citizens to the West, including Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy who was imprisoned for passing secrets to British intelligence.
April 27, 2022
Dimitar DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
Marine veteran Trevor Reed was handed over to the U.S. on a Turkish tarmac, nearly three years after he was arrested during a drunken night out on allegations that he assaulted two police officers.
In return, the U.S. freed Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year prison sentence for drug smuggling.
Dec. 9, 2022
US Army Photo by Miguel A. Negron
Months later, WNBA star Brittney Griner was traded for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” on an airport in Abu Dhabi.
Griner was arrested earlier that year at a Moscow airport when vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her bags. She was sentenced to nine years in prison on drug charges.
Arrested in 2008, Bout was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S. for conspiring to sell weapons to people who intended to kill Americans.
Aug. 1, 2024
U.S. Government Photo
Among the prisoner releases in recent years, Whelan was the first to be detained in Russia in 2018. He was convicted on espionage charges, that he and the U.S. vehemently deny, and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Gershkovich had been detained since March 2023, when he was arrested during a reporting trip. He was the first American journalist to be accused of espionage by Moscow since Daniloff in 1986. Last month, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison in what the U.S. called a “sham” trial.
Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who was based in Prague, was arrested in June 2023 after visiting her mother in Russia. Authorities charged her with disseminating false information about Russia’s military and sentenced her to more than six years in prison in July.
Unlike Whelan and Gershkovich, the U.S. never deemed her to be wrongfully detained.
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Japan’s oldest royal, Princess Yuriko, wartime Emperor Hirohito’s sister-in-law, dies at 101
Tokyo — Japanese Princess Yuriko, the wife of wartime Emperor Hirohito’s brother and the oldest member of the imperial family, has died after her health deteriorated recently, palace officials said. Yuriko died Friday at the age of 101 in a Tokyo hospital, the Imperial Household Agency said. It did not announce the cause of death.
Born in 1923 as an aristocrat, Yuriko married at age 18 to Prince Mikasa, the younger brother of Hirohito and the great-uncle of current Emperor Naruhito, months before the start of World War II.
She has recounted living in a shelter with her husband and their baby daughter after their residence was burned down in the U.S. fire bombings of Tokyo in the final months of the war in 1945.
Imperial Household Agency via AP
Yuriko raised five children and supported Mikasa’s research into ancient Near Eastern history, while also serving her official duties and taking part in philanthropic activities, including promotion of maternal and child health. She outlived her husband and all three of their sons.
Her death reduces Japan’s rapidly dwindling imperial family to 16 people, including four men, as the country faces the dilemma of how to maintain the royal lineage as conservatives in the governing party insist on retaining male-only succession.
The 1947 Imperial House Law, which largely preserves conservative Japanese prewar family values, allows only males to take the throne and forces female royal family members who marry commoners to lose their royal status. That rule came into effect relatively recently, when Princess Mako married her non-royal fiancé Kei Komuro in October 2021, promptly shedding her royal title and trappings — and depriving the shrinking imperial family of another member.
The youngest male member of the imperial family, Prince Hisahito — the nephew of Emperor Naruhito — is currently the last heir apparent, posing a major problem for a system that doesn’t allow for empresses. The conservative-led government is debating how to keep succession stable without relying on women.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, visiting South America to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and Group of 20 summits, issued a statement expressing “heartfelt condolences.”
Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter Aiko and other relatives visited the Mikasa residence to mourn Yuriko’s death. The palace announced that the general public wishing to offer condolences can sign a book beginning Saturday.
Yuriko had lived a healthy life as a centenarian before suffering a stroke and pneumonia in March.
Douglas Glynn/Toronto Star/Getty
She enjoyed exercise in the morning while watching a daily fitness program on television, the Imperial Household Agency says. She also continued to read multiple newspapers and magazines and enjoyed watching news and baseball on TV. On sunny days, she sat in the palace garden or was wheeled in her wheelchair.
Yuriko was hospitalized after her stroke and had been in and out of intensive care since then. Her overall condition deteriorated over the past week, the Imperial Household Agency said.
British jets were scrambled to monitor a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flying close to U.K. airspace, the defense minister in London said on Friday, just days after NATO jets were mobilized when Russian aircraft were spotted over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway.
Two Typhoons from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland followed the Russian Bear-F aircraft as it flew over the North Sea on Thursday, the ministry said.
“At no time was it able to enter UK sovereign airspace,” it added.
The Bear-F, also known as the Tupolev Tu-142, is a maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.
The Typhoons were supported by a Voyager refueling aircraft.
“Our adversaries should be in no doubt of our steadfast determination and formidable ability to protect the UK,” said armed forces minister Luke Pollard.
“The Royal Navy and RAF (Royal Air Force) have once again shown they stand ready to defend our country at a moment’s notice and I pay tribute to the professionalism and bravery of those involved in these latest operations,” he added.
The Royal Navy also shadowed Russian military vessels passing through the English Channel this week, said the defense ministry.
It added that it was the second time in three months that Russian ships and aircraft had been detected within a week of each other.
WPA Pool, Getty Images
Incidents involving Russian and Western aircraft have multiplied over the recent months against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Italy and Norway scrambled jets after Russian aircraft were spotted over the Baltic Sea and along the Norwegian coast.
The Italian Air Force intercepted a Russian Coot-A jet over the Baltic Sea, NATO Allied Air Command said in a post on social media. Norwegian Air Force F-35s identified multiple Russian aircraft flying in international airspace off the country’s coast, NATO said.
In September, Japan said its warplanes used flares to warn a Russian reconnaissance aircraft to leave northern Japanese airspace.
In July, the United States intercepted Russian and Chinese aircraft in international airspace off the coast of Alaska. In February 2024, the U.S. detected four Russian warplanes flying in the same area. More Russian aircraft were spotted in May and February 2023.
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Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, was investigated for alleged sexual assault in 2017
Monterey, Calif. – Pete Hegseth, the Army veteran turned Fox News host selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be defense secretary during his second term was investigated for an alleged sexual assault in 2017, Monterey, Calif. officials confirmed.
In response to multiple public record requests to the city, including one from CBS News, officials released a public statement late Thursday evening about a 2017 police investigation into Hegseth. The statement form the City Manager’s Office and Monterey Police Department contained few details about the case and said they would not make any other public statements related to the investigation.
The incident allegedly occurred somewhere between a minute before midnight on Oct. 7, 2017 and 7 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2017 at 1 Old Golf Course Road, the location of the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel. A police report was filed with Monterey Police Department three days later, on Oct. 12, 2024.
John Lamparski / Getty Images
Police did not disclose the name or age of the alleged victim but did describe the injuries as “Contusions” “right thigh.”
The statement said no weapons were involved.
News of the sexual misconduct allegation was revealed on Thursday by Vanity Fair when the magazine reported that Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was briefed about the alleged sexual misconduct by Hegseth involving a woman, citing unnamed sources — one of whom reportedly said the incident took place in Monterey.
The allegation prompted a discussion among Wiles, Trump’s legal team and Hegseth, who described the allegation as a consensual encounter and a classic case of he-said, she-said, the magazine reported.
Timothy Parlatore, a former Trump lawyer who frequently represents current and former members of the U.S. military, told Vanity Fair: “This allegation was already investigated by the Monterey police department and they found no evidence for it.”
Hegseth is a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan with a handful of military medals, including two Bronze Stars, and has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Princeton and Harvard.
Since 2019, Hegseth has been married to his third wife, Fox News producer Jennifer Rauchet. The two were married at Trump’s National Gold Club in Colts Neck, New Jersey.
Hegseth and his first wife, Meredith Schwarz, divorced in 2009. He and his second wife, Samantha Deering, divorced in 2017, the year he was investigated for the alleged sexual assault.
Disagreement over Hegseth’s qualifications
Following Trump’s Tuesday night announcement that he would nominate Hegseth to be his defense secretary, many have questioned whether the 44-year-old co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekends” can handle managing the Defense Department, which has a budget of $842 billion, almost three million employees and 750 military installations around the world.
“The Pentagon is in need of real reform, and they’re getting a leader who has grit to make it happen,” said Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Republican Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, in a post on the social media platform X. Waltz is a former Army Green Beret colonel.
Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, who served in the Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Hegseth was not “remotely qualified” to be defense secretary.
“The SecDef [secretary of defense] makes life-and-death decisions daily that impact over 2 million troops around the globe. This is not an entry-level job for a TV commentator,” Crow said on X. “The Senate should do its job and deny this nomination.”
Hegseth’s controversial views
Hegseth is a longtime conservative and staunch Trump ally who has talked about changes Trump should make at the Pentagon.
He said the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown should be fired for “pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians.”
And he believes women should not be in combat for the U.S. military, a point he reiterated last week in an interview with “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast.
Ahead of then President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, The Associated Press reported that 12 U.S. National Guard members were removed from helping to secure the event after vetting by the U.S. military and FBI. The members made extremist statements in posts or text messages or had ties with right-wing militia groups.
Hegseth revealed during his interview Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL, that he was one of the National Guard members removed from securing the inauguration.
