Inside the deal that led to a blockbuster prisoner swap between U.S., Russia [Video]

For the past two weeks, Biden administration officials were confident that they had finally secured a deal to release more than a dozen journalists, pro-democracy activists and wrongfully detained Americans from Russian prisons.

The negotiations had been painstaking and sometimes faltering. But now, sixteen people were on the verge of freedom, among them Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, serving a harsh sentence on baseless accusations of spying; Washington Post contributor Vladimir Kara-Murza, among the most outspoken and trenchant critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin; and Paul Whelan, a former Marine who had languished in Russian prisons for more than five years on trumped-up charges.

Officials in Washington who had helped craft the deal were buoyant as the Americans boarded a plane in Moscow, joined by a group of jailed Russian pro-democracy activists who would travel on to Germany. But until they touched down at an airport in Ankara, Turkey, …