Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan were on the move. The complex diplomatic effort that spanned six countries and involved the biggest prisoner exchange since the Cold War was forged of international friendships, the tattered relationships that Joe Biden and I had painstakingly mended after Trump had shredded them in his first term. This result was a product of exactly the kind of skilled diplomacy that Trump and Vance, in their deep and willful ignorance, scorned. Evan and Paul were out of prison, along with fourteen other political prisoners. With the Russians there was always the risk of a
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