Steve Rosenberg: How stage was set for Russia prisoner swap

“This is a matter best dealt with in silence.”

It’s the phrase of choice of Russian officials when asked to comment on possible East-West prisoner exchanges. Words we’ve been hearing for months.

This is how the Kremlin likes it: deal-making behind closed doors, “hostage diplomacy” far from the media spotlight. Intelligence service talking to intelligence service; government to government.

Until Moscow gets what – or rather whom – it wants.

But despite the “silence”, there were signals. Something was moving.

In an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson last February, Vladimir Putin spoke about Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who had been arrested in Russia and charged with espionage.

“I do not rule out that Mr Gershkovich may return to his homeland,” Mr Putin said. “We want the US special services to think about how they can contribute to achieving the goals our special services are pursuing.”

It was a very public and unsubtle hint: Moscow was open to doing a deal.

The Kremlin leader didn’t name names. But he made it quite clear whom Russia wanted in return: Vadim Krasikov, the suspected Russian agent who was serving a life sentence for murder – not in America, but in Germany.

A few days later, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in a remote Arctic penal colony. Rumours swirled that before his death, talks had been under way on exchanging Mr Navalny, Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan, all jailed in Russia, for Vadim Krasikov in Germany.

Had the German authorities entered negotiations on a prisoner swap?