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Laura Coates Live
Americans Freed In Russia Prisoner Swap Arrive In The U.S. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired August 01, 2024 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
BOMANI JONES, PODCAST HOST, WAVE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT: -- was one hundred and eight and a half degrees, which is per, I believe, "The Washington Post," literally the hottest month in the history of the earth --
UNKNOWN: Hottest month of all months.
JONES: -- of the -- of the -- of the whole earth -- the hottest month that there ever has been.
UNKNOWN: And you don't --
JONES: We might have a problem that some attention.
UNKNOWN: We might.
UNKNOWN: Hmm.
UNKNOWN: I mean, or we just really like being unprecedented?
AISHA MILLS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: So, let's come back and talk about climate change policy in the next show.
UNKNOWN: Yeah, and how climate change policy is so weird.
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you, guys, for having me this evening. And thank you all so much for watching "NewsNight: State of the Race." "Laura Coates Live" starts now.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Good evening and welcome to CNN's special coverage of the historic prisoner swap with Russia. You are now looking at live feed from Joint Base Andrews where just moments from now, three freed Americans will finally return home after surviving a long and grueling nightmare in Russian captivity.
President Biden, Vice President Harris, and their families will be on site to welcome them home as they walk off that plane and finally, finally step foot on American soil. A homecoming, I suspect, has replayed in their minds in an effort to hold on to hope that this day would one day be possible: Freedom.
On board, former Marine Paul Whelan held for nearly six years, journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva held for more than a year, all of them wrongfully detained, yet no ability to fight back in a Russian court, no meaningful presumption of innocence or due process.
But today, I mean, look at the smiles on that screen. This photo was taken today after their release and one that the Biden administration worked tirelessly to negotiate. It is by all measures the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, 24 people in total, three Americans, multiple countries involved.
And as part of that deal, Vladimir Putin got eight of his prisoners back, including a dangerous assassin convicted of murder in Germany. You see Putin here greeting him and the others earlier today.
You know, tonight, we learned an extraordinary detail about the negotiations. It turns out that President Biden actually sealed this deal about 90 minutes before he would tell the world that he was ending his reelection bid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The deal that made this possible was a feat of diplomacy and friendship. Friendship. Multiple countries helped get this done. They joined a difficult, complex negotiations at my request.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COATES: Let's get straight now to CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee, who is at Joint Base Andrews. MJ, what a moment in history. I mean, we are minutes out from this plane landing. I understand that President Biden and Vice President Harris are going to be there. What are we about to see?
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Laura, the plane that is carrying these three Americans are -- is in the American airspace. And just minutes from now, we expect that plane to land here at Joint Base Andrews, where President Biden and Vice President Harris will be greeting them.
But more importantly, their families will be on the tarmac waiting for them as well. This, of course, has been a nightmare for Paul Whelan's family that has lasted almost six years, for Evan Gershkovich's family, over a year, and for Alsu Kurmasheva's family, almost a year as well.
Three Americans boarded the airplane in Turkey earlier today. And on board were U.S. government officials, but also, importantly, a number of medics, we were told, as well as a psychologist. The first order of business, Laura, when they land here is, of course, going to be getting to spend that precious time with their family members who have been waiting for them for so long and worrying over these last months and years for some of them. But later tonight, all three of these Americans, accompanied by their families, will be boarding another plane to go to San Antonio, where they are going to be taken to a medical center to get the medical examinations that they badly need and take all of the time, we are told by U.S. officials, that they need to get the care that they are going to need.
We know from having spoken with, of course, others who had been wrongfully detained abroad that the rehabilitation process and the readjustment process can be incredibly challenging. We know that this is certainly only going to be the beginning of their journey as they recover, as they process everything that had happened, and most importantly, get to spend the time that they had wanted to spend all of this time with their families that had been waiting, Laura.
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COATES: MJ, you know, as you mentioned, the family members who are going to be on that tarmac, I cannot even begin to imagine what this wait has been like, the extraordinary effort, the days and days and weeks and months and, in some cases, years of bad news, and the preservation of that holding pattern that must have been excruciating. What have they been going through in the day they've had in Washington, D.C. in anticipation of this moment?
LEE: Yeah. And let me just tell you, the family members who will be on the tarmac in just a matter of minutes, waiting for Paul Whelan on the tarmac is going to be his sister, Elizabeth. Waiting for Evan Gershkovich is going to be his mother, his father, his sister and brother-in-law. And for Alsu Kurmasheva, it is going to be her husband and her two daughters.
It is just impossible, as you say, to imagine the whirlwind of the last couple of days. And we do know that these families received, individually, phone calls from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he invited them to come to Washington, D.C., and come for a meeting at the White House.
But, of course, as we now know, it was only when they entered the Oval Office and met with President Joe Biden face-to-face that they were able to hear directly from the president words that they had been waiting to hear for so long, that their loved ones were free.
You can imagine, though, even after that, hearing those words from the president, that for some of these family members, perhaps the reality and the experience of getting their loved ones back home may not feel real until they can physically hug and touch their loved ones, and that is the moment that we are about to witness in just a matter of minutes, Laura.
COATES: And MJ Lee, we're watching right now a motorcade. We believe it is Vice President Kamala Harris's motorcade arriving at Joint Base Andrews. She will be in attendance along with President Biden as well. And moments from now, moments from now, we will see that plane touch down and those three Americans returning free once again. MJ Lee, please stand by. Joining me here on set, we have CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, and CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.
This is such an extraordinary moment that we are beholding right now. These families have been waiting with bated breath to have this day happen. And now it is here for three Americans who are finally home. We have seen some of them before, Evan, in court, as one example. We'll see them up close and personal today and in person. What are you going to be looking to see now that they will be finally back home and in the sights of cameras and an American president?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The scene that we've been used to seeing in Moscow is them essentially in a cage, in this glass box in Russian courtrooms. We have gotten these glimpses of them in these still photos.
And I'm watching this plane coming down the eastern seaboard. We can see it in real time, and it's just off of Philadelphia right now. So, it's going to be landing very soon. They've been flying for some nine hours from Ankara in Turkey. Before that, they flew some four hours from Russia. So, it has been a very long day for them.
But I'm going to be looking for the same thing I think everybody else is, because when we started this day, we knew that it was going to be such a joyous day for the individuals involved, for their families. And so, I want to see them come off that plane. I want to see how they're doing. I mean, from the still photos that we've seen, they appear to be in good health. But, of course, I'm not a doctor and I can't tell. They will be evaluated. They have been evaluated, at least preliminarily.
The reunion with their families, who they haven't seen for so long. In the case of Paul Whelan, he has been in captivity for the past six years. We understand that they're going to get some private time to reunite before then heading off to Texas. But it's really just that human moment of that reunion, that joy that they will certainly be feeling, that they are back on home soil, and the relief that I think is going to be washing over the entire country.
COATES: This must be, in many ways, as you're tracking it, one of the longest flights of their lives, right? Until they are back on American soil, it must be surreal. There must be so many moments when they thought this could be taken away from them.
And, you know, as Alex mentioned, there's going to be the reunification. There will also be a process now. It won't just be they're driven back to their homes and everything begins again. They'll go to San Antonio. They'll have a medical debriefing. But how about a debriefing of sorts? What do you expect?
WILLIAM TAYLOR, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: Yeah, they've got a lot to tell.
COATES: Yeah. TAYLOR: They've been through a lot. They will be able to describe how they were treated. They'll be able to describe what the questions were, what the interest in them was from the Russians, from all the different aspects of the Russian government. So, they've got a lot to tell about what we can expect from these Russians that have held them for all these times.
COATES: What do you think? I mean, these will be stated reasons, of course, that the Russians have given them as to why they're there.
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There will have to be a lot of nuance and perhaps less than sincere statements being made. How should the intelligence teams be interpreting this?
TAYLOR: They'll want to know exactly the kind of treatment that these people got. They'll want to know what kind of information they were interested in. We know that they were wrongfully detained. We know that they were not -- You know, Evan was doing his job. He was doing a reporter's job. And so, the stories that they can tell about what the kind of reaction from the jailers, from the interrogators, from the officials that they undoubtedly ran into, this will be an interesting story that they've got to tell.
COATES: A wealth of information could be gleaned by these intelligence officials by just something that they may find otherwise benign, or an innocuous statement could be very telling if you piece a lot of information together. But talk to me about this moment. I mean, this is the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War, Kimberly. This is contextually so significant.
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: They are going to walk off that plane to the lights of the world on them. And I think they've been held mostly in solitary confinement. So, yes, intelligence officials, defense officials, diplomats will want to hear every detail of their incarceration, what kind of food they had, all those things, but then there's going to be that moment of this is really real and it's a moment to celebrate.
And I'm thinking of all of the U.S. government officials, all the European officials who've been working behind the scenes, diplomats, intelligence officers, everyone who has been passing messages to make this happen. And for those people being released right now, they don't know all that has been said and told about them. They're going to be catching up on a lot of -- gosh, they might not even know the Olympic scores. They might not have heard of all the controversy of the Olympic opening ceremony.
And so, it's going to be this mixture, this bittersweet mixture of seeing their families, realizing uncomfortably, probably, that they're the center of the story, and then slowly decompressing and starting to tell their part of it that we haven't gotten a chance to hear yet.
COATES: I mean, you mentioned the Olympics. They may not know that there has been a political turmoil. They may not be paying attention, may not access information. They surely are probably prioritizing what is getting to people in these prisons in a way to perhaps manipulate further in some way.
But talk to me about how this came together because, you know, you've got, what, 24 prisoners.
MARQUARDT: Yeah.
COATES: You've got seven countries.
MARQUARDT: Right.
COATES: Biden saying earlier today this is why allies are even important. How did this come together in this moment, to have this extraordinary amount of coordination, Alex?
MARQUARDT: Well, the reason he kept mentioning allies and friendships was not just perhaps a subtle jab at Trump in this political season because Trump is anti-NATO, et cetera, but really because of how many countries the U.S. had to get in line to make this happen.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
MARQUARDT: Twenty-four prisoners, as you say, but it's kind of lopsided where you've got only eight going back to Russia and 16 coming from the Russian side. Three of the Russian prisoners who were released came from the United States. And the U.S. essentially over the course of the past few years had to go around the world and put together this group of Russians to be traded in order to get these Americans home.
The linchpin was a man named Vadim Krasikov, who is a Russian assassin. He's a former member of the KGB and its successor, the FSB. He's rumored to be close to Vladimir Putin. And he was in Berlin when he carried out an execution-style killing of a former Chechen rebel. Now, this was a man that Putin has been trying to get out for quite some time. But the Germans, because of just the galling nature of this execution, have refused to release him.
So, there have been all kinds of combinations and permutations of deals that the U.S. put forward to Russia that were rejected one after the other because the Germans were refusing to release Krasikov. And so, for the past few months, for most of this year, in fact, Joe Biden himself, Jake Sullivan, the National Security advisor, Bill Burns, the CIA director, they've been working on the Germans, on Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, to release Krasikov.
Eventually, he relented back in June. I'm told the final proposal was put forward to the Russians in June by the CIA. A couple weeks later, in early July, in a phone call with the CIA director, it was accepted, and then finally formally accepted just a couple weeks ago in person in a meeting between the CIA and Russian intelligence in Turkey, and here we are today on this historic day.
[23:15:05] COATES: I mean, it's mind-boggling to me in a way. You know that the press and the American electorate has been focused on one story for three weeks, right? And yet behind the scenes, the machinations of what it took to have it, it's almost like what's going on in the periphery, all the more important.
Ambassador, speak to me about, I know you weren't involved in this aspect of it, but the diplomatic resilience and efforts that would have had to take place, the convincing to try to convince Germany. As Alex was describing, this is somebody who's a linchpin. What would that moment be like in all those conversations?
TAYLOR: Very difficult. Alex gave a good description of the complexity of all this. So, seven different nations, including the United States and Russia, of course, but others as well who held Russians in their jails. We talked about the most important one, which was held -- this assassin was held in Germany.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
TAYLOR: And the Germans were uncomfortable giving up an assassin to go back free for knowing what he had done in order to get back innocent people. I mean, the tradeoff was very difficult. It was a tradeoff and difficult in this country as well. We have those same kinds of arguments and discussions and tensions in getting those people back, but yet letting this guy go free. So, this was difficult.
And exactly as Alex said, you know, you had the CIA, you had a lot of the State Department folks working on this. The folks in the embassies around -- around all of these different countries working very hard as well, preparing for these conversations, lining up, sometimes going up to the secretary of state, sometimes going to the national security advisor.
Sometimes, the conversations were at the presidential level. A couple of times, we've heard that President Biden had to get on the phone with a couple of these leaders to see if he couldn't -- convince them to let the Russians go, who were in those jails.
COATES: You know, we even heard from Jake Sullivan, who got choked up today --
DOZIER: Yeah,
COATES: -- talking about what this was like. He was referencing some of the meetings he'd had with the families. And you can imagine, normally, not good news, and the frustration the families must be experiencing. But just in hearing this reporting, Kim, I mean, call me a cynic, how did none of this leak? Is it because what was at stake was just that important that people said if this gets out, it could take everything?
DOZIER: They talk about something called like message discipline --
COATES: Hmm. DOZIER: -- and they showed incredible discipline. Nobody wanted to look cool by telling a friend that they knew something was going to happen because nobody wanted to jinx this. And this kind of effort for the Biden-Harris administration, what a win to go out on. And you think about the fact that Biden was then telling the world that he was going to pull out of the race knowing that this was going to be his achievement.
And what I'm fascinated by is that Vladimir Putin knew he was handing this to Biden, and yet, why did he go ahead with it? Was it because he thought Germany would only do this for Biden and not for a possible future Trump administration? Was it because the people he was getting back were so important that he didn't want to let this chance go by?
But, you know, it's in "The Wall Street Journal" reporting that the assassin, the former FSB colonel that got traded back, had told his jailers that Putin wasn't going to let him stay in jail. So, Putin has followed through with the promise that he makes to the strongmen who keep him in power by bringing these people home.
MARQUARDT: We should just compare and contrast who's getting out today.
COATES: That's so important. I want to go right there because the names, we know some of them.
MARQUARDT: Yeah.
COATES: But tell me about who these Americans really are. And, by the way, we're watching because we are literally moments away from three Americans stepping foot on American soil for the first time, in some cases, in years, all of whom were wrongfully detained. You can see the gaggle of reporters there. We've watched the motorcade of the vice president. President Biden's motorcade is in route. The families of those who have been wrongfully detained are waiting with -- I can't even believe the amount of hope and anxiety they must be feeling right now. Tell me about the three Americans.
MARQUARDT: The two groups couldn't be more different. On the American side, you've got Evan Gershkovich, a young American journalist who, as the ambassador just said, was doing his job. He was east of Moscow when he was arrested. He had done some fantastic reporting about the Russian side of things, essentially, during this war in Ukraine. Paul Whelan had been visiting Moscow back in 2018, a former U.S. Marine, picked up like Gershkovich on espionage charges. Both of them then convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
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Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist who was just convicted as well, six and a half years in prison for critiquing, in their view, the Russian military. And then Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is not American but is a permanent resident. He's a national of both Britain and Russia, Pulitzer Prize winner, a political dissident, a Russian politician, opposition activist who has done some terrific writing and in prison. I believe the sentence was for 25 years. On the other side, who's Russia getting back? They're getting back this assassin. He's the biggest name on there. From the U.S., they're getting three prisoners who have a variety of charges and convictions for cybercrimes, money laundering, that kind of thing. And then the four others are what we call illegals. They're spies. If anybody is seen "The Americans," that's what they were. They were spying undercover in Slovenia, in Norway, and in Poland.
And so, the U.S. convinced those countries to hand them over. So, you've got an assassin, three criminals, and four spies who are being given back to Russia in exchange for, at least in the American case, I would say four extremely upstanding citizens.
COATES: It's extraordinary to think about this cost-benefit analysis that must have been run in terms of the diplomatic considerations of this. Everyone, please stand by.
COATES: I want to bring in longtime friend of freed Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza and outspoken Putin critic, Bill Browder. He's also the author of several books, including "Red Notice." Bill, thank you so much. What an extraordinary moment. I mean, among the released is your close friend, Vladimir Kara-Murza. He was actually headed to Germany. How is he and his family feeling at this hour? You think about this.
BILL BROWDER, PUTIN CRITIC, HEAD OF GLOBAL MAGNITSKY JUSTICE CAMPAIGN: Well, it's a -- it's a momentous day for him, for his family, for me, for all of his friends. Since he was put in jail two and a half years ago, we've been working nonstop on putting pressure on the U.S. government, on the British government, on the E.U. and everyone else to make sure that he gets released.
He's in a particularly vulnerable situation because before he was put in jail, the Russians had made two assassination attempts against him using poison, and the after effects of the poison had been with him for a long time. He nearly died in both incidents. And as he was sitting in prison in solitary confinement in Siberia, he was losing the sensation in his feet and his hands from polyneuropathy. The doctor said that he wasn't going to survive two years, let alone 25 years.
And so, literally, he was facing a death sentence in Russia, and we were all convinced that -- that if we didn't get him out, he would die. And so, the fact that he has been released is -- is really the difference between life and death.
COATES: And medical treatment hopefully coming to him and just thinking about what every day must have been like as his health deteriorated further. I mean, we were talking about this just now, Bill. This is the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War. I mean, does the magnitude speak to a kind of level, perhaps, of desperation or impatience and urgency from Putin at this time?
BROWDER: Well, as you were talking before about Vadim Krasikov, the murderer, for some reason, Putin has -- has -- has an -- had an obsession getting this guy out. And we know this because he brought it up on a number of occasions publicly, saying that he wants to get this Krasikov out, and he was ready to do just about anything to get Krasikov out.
And -- and the bottleneck wasn't Putin and it wasn't the United States. It was Germany. Germany was the country where Krasikov committed the murder. He did it in the Tea Garden of Berlin. He was caught. He was found guilty and sentenced to a long prison term. And the Germans rightfully said, well, wait a second, we don't want to let a convicted murderer out. And the negotiations went on and on.
And -- and one of the things which I think affected the negotiations was that Belarus, an allied country to Putin, Lukashenko is the leader of that country, they arrested a German national and sentenced him to death, and I think that that's what probably pushed the Germans over the edge. And then they finally came back and said, we will do this, but if we do this, we don't want just the American hostages released, we want the Russian dissidents released.
And so, Vladimir Kara-Murza, who's one of the leading dissidents, along with Ilya Yashin, Oleg Orlov, and a number of others who -- people who work for Alexei Navalny, have all been released. And it's quite an extraordinary complicated situation. All the different countries involved. And it's not just Germany. It's Norway, Poland, Slovenia, et cetera. It's a -- it's a -- it's a big accomplishment that this complicated diplomatic deal has been put together and executed, and now we have all these people free.
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COATES: It certainly is. We're hearing that President Biden has arrived at Joint Base Andrews as well. We are moments away from that plane touching down, containing those Americans who will set foot on American soil for the first time, in some cases, in years. My colleague, Alex Marquardt, you have a question as well for Bill.
MARQUARDT: Yeah. Bill, it was over a decade ago, I believe, in 2010, when your colleague, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in a Russian prison. And as we await these three Americans to land back on American soil, I was wondering if you could describe for us the conditions in which Magnitsky found himself in those Russian prisons, what Paul Whelan would have gone through, as well as Alexei Navalny, who I believe was in a notoriously horrible Russian prison in the Arctic Circle when he died back in February.
BROWDER: So, my lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was arrested after uncovering a massive government corruption scheme. He was put in pretrial detention, and then he was viciously tortured in pretrial detention for 358 days. They put him in cells with 14 inmates in eight beds and left the lights on 24 hours a day. They put him in cells with no heat and no window panes in Moscow. They put him in cells with no toilet, just a hole in the floor and sewage would bubble up. They'd move him from cell to cell to cell.
And as this wore on, he got sick. He developed terrible pains in his stomach. He was refused medical treatment. And -- and things just got worse and worse and worse. And then, eventually, he went into critical condition. And instead of treating him, they put him in an isolation cell and eight riot guards with rubber batons beat him to death. That was in November of 2009.
And, of course, we all know the story of Alexei Navalny. Alexei Navalny was also a friend of mine, an ally of ours in the -- in the campaign for justice for Sergei Magnitsky. We don't know what happened in the prison camp in Siberia, but we know that he was -- one day, he was alive and fine, and the next day, he was dead.
What I can say is that Russian prisons are very, very rough places and terrible place for Vladimir Kara-Murza, my -- my friend who has been released today, terrible place for -- for Evan Gershkovich, terrible place for Paul Whelan. You know, these are places where people die. It's not -- it's not a unknown thing to have -- have happened. They're very, very unpleasant.
And so, this -- this -- this is a real achievement, to get these individuals out. And the only sad part about the whole story is that, for those people who've gotten out, there's a lot of other people who are still sitting there in prison rotting away.
COATES: Bill, please stand by. I want to bring in our panel and Kim on this point. I mean, it is truly stomach-turning, to think about the conditions that are being faced by people in these prisons, let alone those who have been wrongfully detained. It makes all the more important. What will take place in the next 24 to 40 hours as these particular Americans are going to be transported for medical treatment debriefing? We talk about the physical, but there is going to be an extraordinary mental toll that has been taken on each of them.
DOZIER: And it's going to reveal itself to them day after day in different ways. First, there'll be this elation, and then the quiet moments in the night. It'll come back to you that, are you really free? You'll wake up and wonder, wait, where am I right now? Other people who've been released have talked about not being able to sleep in a bed, having to sleep on a concrete floor because that's what they've been doing for a long period of time. So, yes, there'll be that emotional toll and just the processing of that emotion.
But the good thing is, Alex, you've been talking about this, the program that they have down in San Antonio to help them through this.
MARQUARDT: Yeah, it's really important. I was struck by something Trevor Reed said earlier tonight here on CNN. He was released back in 2022, exchanged then for a Russian pilot who was involved with drug smuggling.
And he was talking about this program that -- that -- that is offered to them. And he said he knew about it before he was released from prison. He thought, you know what, once I'm released, once I'm home, I'll be fine. And he said his advice to those coming home tonight was don't underestimate how much support you're going to need. Even if you are relatively fine physically, you are going to need some support recovering from this experience. You know, for many, it's truly traumatic. So, to Kim's point, what's on offer is a program called PISA, P-I-S-A. It's at the Brooke Army Medical Center down in San Antonio. It's part of the biggest Department of Defense medical complex in the country and it is meant to cater to people who have gone through traumatic experiences like this, hostages, prisoners, that kind of thing. Brittney Griner, the WNBA star, went through it. I believe she stayed for about a week.
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And essentially, what they tell these -- these returnees, you take the time you need. You know, they'll sit down with therapists and psychologists, they'll be evaluated medically and, you know, they will start to go through various types of treatment and really get what they need. There's been all kinds of widespread praise for this program, for these types of people.
COATES: Ambassador, I mean, I still go back to this question that is circling in all of our minds as to the timing of all this. Thank God it is happening. But the why now still lurks pretty deep for so many people. But also, I do wonder what happens with the information that is gathered. If you hear about some of the, you know, torturous treatment, if the Americans are aware of not only mistreatment but certain information that's coming in, what do you do with that in terms of diplomatic relations?
Russia is already not a nation with whom we are an ally. We are geopolitical enemies to say the least about them. What do you do with that information? And as we're watching right now, that motorcade coming in, the president of the United States seems to have arrived. Actually, one moment, please, ambassador. I want to go right back to CNN's MJ Lee, who's at Joint Base Andrews. MJ Lee, what are we seeing right now? Has President Biden arrived?
LEE: Yeah, what is pulling in right now into JBA is the president's motorcade carrying the president inside, of course. And just a few minutes ago, we also saw Vice President Kamala Harris's motorcade pulling in. And all of the reporters that typically travel with the president are also all sets in place.
And importantly, below us, below this press riser, is a little area set up where there are extra cameras. And importantly, about a dozen or so employees of "The Wall Street Journal." Some of them, we are told, are here to do their jobs and cover this story, as we are doing right now, as our colleagues at various other media outlets are doing. But all of them are definitely here to greet Evan Gershkovich, when he sets foot on the tarmac and sets foot on U.S. soil for the first time in about a year or so.
We are waiting for, of course, the family members of those three Americans to come out onto the tarmac as well. They will be standing on the tarmac alongside President Biden and Vice President Harris. Of course, both of them had made this fierce, furious diplomatic push over the last several months.
Many of those conversations of you have been talking about with Alex and others, those conversations and those efforts had been in private because of the sensitive nature of this historic deal.
Again, in just a few minutes, that airplane that took off in Turkey earlier today, carrying those three Americans, any moment now will be landing here at Joint Base Andrews. We are awaiting that moment and that really joyous and emotional reunion we expect to see for those three Americans and their families, Laura.
COATES: MJ Lee, keep us posted as we wait for this historic moment, moments away. I can't imagine, ambassador, you know, what one says to a loved one, what you feel. Is it just the pouring out of emotions? Just to hold them and feel them against you once again would be unbelievable.
And yet, MJ Lee mention, that Alex and Kim have also touched on, and that is the role of Turkey in this. Why is Turkey such an important aspect of this negotiation with all these nations involved?
TAYLOR: Yeah, Laura. So, Turkey has been in the middle of several of these negotiations. We remember that the Turks and the U.N. were instrumental in a grain deal between the Russians and the Ukrainians. The Russians had performed all these atrocities. The Ukrainians were not going to talk to Russians. The Ukrainians were going to talk to the Turks and they were going to talk to the U.N. And U.N. and Turks then in turn talk to the Russians. So, they've been playing that role and they're centrally located. So, they can fly down and have that exchange right there.
But I'd like to go back to something that Bill Browder said.
COATES: Uh-hmm.
TAYLOR: And that -- and the difference in treatment, you were talking about the treatment, between people like --
COATES: Viktor Bout?
TAYLOR: No. I was thinking more of Magnitsky --
COATES: Uh-hmm.
TAYLOR: -- and Navalny. A cynic like Putin took them in and in the end tortured them and killed them.
COATES: Hmm.
TAYLOR: He was never going to release them. But that same cynic, Putin knew that he was going to release some of the people that are released today, Paul and Ivan (ph) and --
COATES: Why do you think he knew that?
TAYLOR: Because that's why he stole them. That's why he grabbed them. In order to trade them as -- as -- as pieces for people that he wanted back. This assassin that we've been talking about, he wanted that man back, and the way to do that was to grab an American or two or three.
[23:35:00]
COATES: Why does he want this assassin back?
MARQUARDT: The thinking goes that he's cut from the same cloth. He comes from the same school. He was also KGB. He was also FSB. He was a uniformed colonel. Yes, there are other spies in the mix, but this guy was -- he came from the same place as Putin. And, you know, Putin is sending these assassins out around the world. I think Kim mentioned this.
So, what -- what these would-be assassins now see is if you are sent out and if you're asked to do this kind of thing, the Russian state will come and get you later on. They'll make sure that you're taken care of and that eventually you come home. And that is one of the dangerous lessons that has been taught tonight.
I would never disagree with my friend, Bill Taylor, but I --
COATES: Here he comes.
(LAUGHTER)
MARQUARDT: There was some speculation that Navalny might be in the mix. Navalny, the most famous opposition activist who was -- who was in this awful penal colony, but he was in the discussions, at least. I'm told he was never on a formal proposal to the Russians. But after the Russians had rejected, you know, proposal after proposal from the U.S., there was some discussion that perhaps Germany would be willing to give up Krasikov if they would release Navalny.
Why was Navalny important to Germany? Well, after he'd been poisoned, he went to Germany for -- to be rehabilitated, for medical treatment. And so, that is something that we were told that the Germans were at least considering, and then he died in early February.
COATES: You know, I don't know if it's just me, but I find it terrifying to think that there is somebody collecting like chess pieces, Americans or others, who are -- to wrongfully detain them in Russia with the anticipation of trying to reclaim those who have been rightfully prosecuted in other nations for carrying out the monstrosities that are being described here.
You know, Kim, I am wondering, though, as we're not always accustomed to somebody like Putin offering or extending reciprocal loyalty, is this a factor of his insecurity about his positioning, that if he were to fail to carry out his objectives or his promises, that there could be political consequences at a time like this?
DOZIER: Look, the same way it's a message to every American that your country won't leave you behind, Putin has just sent a message to everyone around him, who is keeping him in power, that he will go to the mat for them. And he's also sending a message to anyone who might be incarcerated around the world right now.
COATES: One second, Kim, I want to show everyone, this -- this beacon that you're seeing in the distance is actually the plane that contains the three Americans who will set foot on American soil yet again. The symbolism of this moment of watching a light in the sky, not knowing what's behind it, approaching the landing of Joint Base Andrews where the president of the United States and the vice president and the families of these people are waiting.
Can you think of a more extraordinary moment than to watch people who were previously not free land on the United States of America's soil and watch that light coming as if descending from the heavens? This is an extraordinary moment that we're seeing right now. I think all of our hearts are in our hands as we see the plane getting ready to taxi and come to a stop, and coming out will be three freed Americans. They are now -- their landing gear is down. They have arrived. They are in the United States of America once again. Ambassador Taylor, this is unbelievable.
TAYLOR: This is the moment that they've been thinking about, just landing in the United States and seeing their families very soon, seeing the people of the United States, welcoming them back. This is indeed a great moment for them.
COATES: Think about every moment we've seen in the course of our own lives, taking a flight, and you hear that landing gear go down, you begin to brace yourself for the light impact hopefully that will come. But for these three Americans, Alex, this is their entire lives.
MARQUARDT: And to Bill's point, obviously, this is something that they've been thinking about intellectually for so long. I don't know how you begin to process this. How do you process the fact that less 12 -- you know, less than 24 hours ago, you were in a Russian cell, and then you were suddenly told to get up and move and -- and rushed on to a plane that first took you to Turkey and is now landing in the United States?
Not just home, but they're being welcomed by the president of the United States, the vice president of the United States. I'm also told that the CIA director is going to be there. There's going to be a whole host of American dignitaries. It just must be a staggering amount of emotion that is going through their heads and, of course, their families.
[23:40:01]
We understand that the president and vice president are not going to make any remarks, so it'll be very interesting to see what kind of ceremony this is, if it even is a ceremony. Certainly, the priority is going to be on letting these three Americans be reunited with their family, almost certainly in a large way in private. But what we're about to watch unfold is not just historic, but it's very dramatic and extremely emotional.
COATES: Kim, we're watching that plane taxi, and when it comes to a stop, when that staircase is revealed and they're able to come out, they will be on American soil. And as Alex was mentioning, with each of those stops from Turkey and beyond, can you imagine what was going through their heads? Are they being sent back? Did something fall through? Is this really going to happen? DOZIER: I imagine they're going to be thinking about things like, please don't let me trip down the steps, as everyone is watching. But also, this is really real. And there's going to be all this joy. At the same time, it is tempered by, they know that there are other Americans still left behind. CNN has talked to some of the loved ones of those who are not getting to take part in this.
And former President Donald Trump has already criticized the Biden administration for the swap that it did to get these people back. But that really seems mean-spirited when you see a moment like we're about to see transpire. You got these people home.
COATES: I want to go back to CNN's MJ Lee. She's at Joint Base Andrews. MJ, the plane is here. What are you seeing? What is the energy like around you, knowing that they are yards away?
LEE: Yeah, the plane is, in fact, here, just over my left shoulder. Actually, some of the officers working here handed members of the press these earplugs because it is about to get very loud. That's how close we are about to be to this plane that is going to pull up.
And as you were talking about, we expect the staircase to drop down, and then at some point for those three Americans to emerge from the plane and set foot on American soil here at JBA in just a matter of moments. I'm just trying to get a good peek at exactly where the plane is. Yep, there it is.
And we haven't yet still seen the family members emerge from where we know they have been waiting at a waiting center here at JBA. We know that the motorcades of the president and the vice president, of course, arrived. They have not yet emerged.
But behind me, just under the riser, are a number of journalists, including about a dozen or so employees of "The Wall Street Journal" who are so eagerly waiting to see Evan emerge from that airplane.
Laura, I have to tell you, obviously, for all three of these Americans, this is going to be such an emotional day. Here comes the plane just right behind us.
COATES: We're seeing the plane.
LEE: It is not a very big plane.
COATES: We're seeing -- it's not a big plane, but it is full of the promise of the United States of America. And we're watching right now as it is coming to a stop. And just look at the proximity. And she mentioned again "The Wall Street Journal" reporters. Remember, world, America, there is a "Wall Street Journal" reporter who is simply doing his job. And one of his last statements as he asked for a kind of clemency in a handwritten note to President Putin was to ask him for an interview before leaving Russia. That's someone on the plane.
Somebody else on the plane, of course, is someone who has watched other prisoners be released and has remained inside. Somebody else who is a critic of Putin who is now here back in the United States. And we are about to see the door to that plane open and the first steps of freedom. It almost has the impression of a kind of moon landing in some respects. You know, we're all sitting here as Americans. I sit here as a mother and a daughter and a human being who has her heart in her hands thinking about what they must be feeling like to get off of that plane.
Ambassador, all the diplomats who have had a role in this, from the pilot to the diplomat to the ambassadors to the CIA and beyond, they are all waiting for this moment to finally come.
TAYLOR: And they've been working really hard for this moment for years, for months and years, for this very moment to get these people back. It has been a lot of effort. They've had to talk to a lot of people. They've talked to all the folks in these capitals. Now is the time that they've been looking for.
COATES: Alex, these conversations have been ongoing, in some cases, for years. And a similar scene has played out in other countries across the globe as they were also welcoming home some of their own.
[23:45:00]
MARQUARDT: Yeah, we saw a similar scene playing out in Moscow earlier today when those eight Russians got home. And President Putin, like President Biden, met them off the plane. But as we were saying, obviously, these are wildly different types of prisoners.
And here, we see the president and the vice president walking towards the plane, trying to make out who else is with them. I have to imagine that it's family. We do know among the family members that Elizabeth Whelan, so that's Paul Whelan's sister, I'm going to venture a guess that's her on the left side in the white, is there. We also know that --
COATES: The president is waving and also saluting.
MARQUARDT: He's there with a military officer. The Gershkoviches are there, mother and father, Mikhail and Ella, as well as his sister, Danielle.
COATES: I hear the sounds of something opening. Could it be this is the moment in time that we're going to be ready to see as the president? Yes, the staircase has gone up. Who will be the first to come home? Let's watch.
(APPLAUSE)
COATES: It was Paul Whelan who has been serving a sentence for years. He was the first to descend down the stairs, now embracing the president of the United States of America after a lengthy conversation with the vice president with whom he is now embracing as he's turning his head towards the family members that await him, waving back to the crowd as America waves back.
(APPLAUSE) Now, Evan Gershkovich is now on the ground.
(LAUGHTER)
We're watching Evan Gershkovich having shook the hands of the president and vice president, embracing both. He appears to be saying thank you as he's walking now, arms outstretched to his mother.
(APPLAUSE)
We're now seeing Alsu Kurmasheva shaking the hands of the president of the United States, the third American freed in the prisoner's swap. Let's remind the audience about the significance of this particular person being freed.
(APPLAUSE)
MARQUARDT: Also, united with her daughters and her husband.
[23:50:02]
Her daughters are Bibi and Miriam. Her husband is Pavel Butorin. What can you say? Just a beautiful family reunion for all three of them.
COATES: How can this not bring tears to the eyes of anyone watching of all that is transpiring? Daughters reunited with their mother, husbands with their wives, mothers with their sons, sisters and brothers.
MARQUARDT: The president and vice president there standing back. Paul Whelan has just gone right back up to him to resume the conversation.
COATES: Alsu's husband appears to be wiping tears from his face. The daughters have not let her go.
DOZIER: One of them, it's her birthday.
MARQUARDT: Yes.
DOZIER: As soon as it hits midnight, it's her birthday. And President Biden had them sing happy birthday to her earlier today. And this has just got to be the best present.
COATES: We think he is pinning on Paul Whelan's collar. There was something he was doing to his collar. We will have to wait and see.
DOZIER: Paul's brother has been a great conduit for information to all of us.
MARQUARDT: Right.
DOZIER: But the moment his brother was freed, he said, that's it, don't ask me for interviews with Paul, I'm going to give him back his agency and let him make his decisions from now on.
MARQUARDT: Yeah, he put out a statement, David Whelan, who became the family spokesman. And he said that Paul was a Russian hostage.
COATES: President Biden is getting ready to speak. Let's see if we can hear what he is saying on this extraordinary moment as he approaches the microphones.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
BIDEN: I asked him to do some things that were against (INAUDIBLE) self-interest and very difficult thing to do. Germany and Slovenia. Slovenia came in at the last minute. And I tell you what, the chancellor was incredible. He was incredible.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): So, what's your message to other countries (INAUDIBLE) would be a new way to get something they want from us?
BIDEN: Hey, look, that has been the case for all of history.
(LAUGHTER)
My job is to make sure, number one, they don't get them. If they do, we get them back. I don't buy this idea that you're going to let these people rot in jail because other people may be captured. We're going to send out all the notifications to all the other countries, all our citizens, what countries not to go to, what to do, what not to do. And they got to pay attention. I got more work to do.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is an extraordinary day. And I'm very thankful for our president and what he has done over his entire career, but in particular as it relates to these families and these individuals, what he has been able to do to bring the allies together on many issues, but in particular this one.
This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances. This is an incredible day. You can see it in the families, in their eyes, and in their cries.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE).
BIDEN: A while ago, we had to make sure everything was in place. Slovenia made the right move at the right time. Anyway, look, it's time to trust. I mean it. I know everybody thinks I talk about the notion of relationships with foreign policy and other countries. Much of it, and you've heard me kid with Barack, all politics is personal. It matters. Other leaders trust you, you trust them, you get things done. And that's how this got done. Anyway, thank you.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE)
BIDEN: I'm very concerned about it. I had a very direct meeting with the prime minister today. Very direct. We have the basis for a ceasefire. We should move on it, and they should move on it now.
[23:55:00] UNKNOWN (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) ceasefire ruined after the assassination of Haniyeh?
BIDEN: It is not help. It's all we are seeing right now. Thank you.
HARRIS: Thanks, everyone.
COATES: We just heard from the president of the United States and the vice president. The president is talking about how this deal came together, expressing that countries such as Germany and Slovenia acted against their immediate self-interest, but that Slovenia made the right move at the right time.
President Biden expressed that his number one objective was to have this not happen, and then if they did go and they were detained, then the number two was to get them back rather than to, as he called it, rot in jail. He admonished Americans to pay attention to the different warnings issued by the State Department and others about which countries to visit and which not to.
It was an extraordinary day, as Vice President Harris has said, and she expressed her gratitude for President Biden and for his prescience in bringing the allies together, even saying it was a testament to the important power of diplomacy and understanding the strength that rests in it and our alliances.
Before moving on to questions about what's happening in Gaza, President Biden expressed some concern about the events of the last 48 to 72 hours. Evan Gershkovich is now greeting the press. Remember, he is a "Wall Street Journal" reporter, and 12 of his colleagues and -- they embraced. Friends are there now. Let's watch as he continues to embrace those who have tried relentlessly to bring him home. He is making a statement. We don't have a microphone on him.
Alex, it strikes me, he seems very calm, cool, and collected at this extraordinary moment. I'm sure his emotions belie his stance.
MARQUARDT: It is remarkable that after spending a little bit of time with his parents and his sister, and I believe his brother-in-law, he made a beeline over there to the press pen. I'm sure he's got a lot of friends in there, not just among "The Wall Street Journal" reporters, but among all the others. It looks like he's making some remarks there to the press. As our MJ Lee was saying, some of them are there to cover it and others are there just to welcome him home.
As fellow journalists, I think we have to give props to "The Wall Street Journal" for really keeping his story front and center. They did a very good job of making sure that we didn't forget about his case, of consistently reporting it out, marking milestones of his detention, of issuing statements when things happen, like the outrageous conviction that he got last month when he was sentenced to 16 years. so, I'm sure he's over there thanking his "Wall Street Journal" colleagues.
Earlier today, in "The Wall Street Journal" newsroom in New York, we saw a big celebration with the editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker. They pumped champagne and toasted Evan Gershkovich. For all the journalists at "The Wall Street Journal" today, it is a momentous and extremely joyous day.
COATES: When we have sound, we hope to bring it to you. He continues to embrace people. I mean, the consummate journalist ambassador, he knows full well. He was in Russia to do his job before being wrongfully detained. And still in this moment, when he could be embracing, you know his mother, he's just wanting him in her arms. He is talking to the press in a nation that believes in the freedom of the press.
TAYLOR: He absolutely does. A real professional. Took a lot of risk there. I mean, as the president points out, it's a risky place to be. It's a risky place to do journalists' jobs. And he was there, reporting and sending back stories. And now, he's dealing there with his friends, probably a lot of "Wall Street Journal" people right there as well.
You know, his mother did a lot. His mother talked to President Biden, talked to the chancellor. His mother took some messages back and forth. So, this was a big -- a big effort for them.
COATES: We are seeing right now the vice president embracing the daughters of Alsu Kurmasheva, Bibi and Miriam. And, of course, we note that one's birthday is a mere-minutes from now. Already having had the president of the United States lead a song earlier today in celebration of her birthday. What an extraordinary moment it must be to have her mother back in her arms. We also know that Paul Whelan's sister is there, Evan Gershkovich's father, mother, sister and brother-in-law, and the husband of Alsu Kurmasheva as well.
President Biden, Vice President Harris walking side by side in a critical moment. Can we go back to -- oh, they're walking right now, excuse me, with Evan Gershkovich's mother.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): -- done with my family. It means a lot.
[00:00:00]
COATES: We're hearing, I think, the voice of Paul Whelan, if I'm not mistaken.
(LAUGHTER)
Biden is approaching.
