Deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said that Russia changing its behavior after negotiating on releasing U.S. citizens it had detained was not “a question that entered” the calculus when the United States secured the swap.
The U.S. secured the release of 16 people from Russia on Thursday, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan. Former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), among others, have criticized the deal for potentially incentivizing Russian President Vladimir Putin to detain more U.S. citizens under dubious criminal accusations to secure the release of Russian criminals detained abroad.
Finer said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that it was not part of their thinking when agreeing to the deal, and pointed out that U.S. citizens have and likely still will be unjustly taken into custody abroad despite past deals.
“So will this alter Russia’s behavior going forward? I frankly don’t think that is a question that entered into our calculus. We have seen countries like Russia, detain Americans before this administration came to office. We’ve seen them detain Americans during this administration, and we’re likely to see countries like this, do this going forward and it will be a priority for the United States to get people home or when we can,” Finer said.
Finer also emphasized the deal to get the U.S. detainees released, in exchange for Russian criminals being held abroad, was “extremely difficult.”
“The President himself has acknowledged that these are extremely difficult decisions, for any head of state. He has also said that it will be a priority for this administration, and I think we’ve walked the walk on this, to help free Americans who are wrongfully detained abroad in situations that are almost unimaginable to many of us,” Finer said.
“And I think that what the President did and, by the way, what his fellow Heads of State did from four other allied countries, including the Chancellor of Germany, who the president is especially acknowledged, was an act of moral courage,” Finer said. “That has led to our lives being altered for the better for Americans, for Russian dissidents, who are caught up in President Putin’s unjust detentions. And this is the kind of decision that the President said he will make, he will continue to make, and he will make it a priority.”
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Finer also said the U.S. is determined to secure the release of Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher detained in Russia in 2021 who was not part of Thursday’s deal. He added they had attempted to include Fogel in the deal. The White House had previously said they were attempting to include Russian dissident Alexei Navalny in a prisoner swap prior to his death.
The prisoner swap the U.S. agreed to on Thursday, which freed Whelan, Gershkovich, and others, was the largest such agreement with Russia since the Cold War.