The deal that freed Evan Gershkovich was more than a prisoner swap

IT IS THEKGB biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the cold war. It involved 26 prisoners held in seven different countries, including Russian dissidents; spies serving the Kremlin; American journalists; and a German mercenary. It resembled a remake of a spy film set in the 1980s, when Vladimir Putin was serving as a officer in Dresden.