Last Tuesday, I wrote to you that there was lots of talk in the Russian opposition community that a prisoner swap might be imminent. It began when a half-dozen high-profile Russian political prisoners, including Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Kara-Murza, and several Navalny associates vanished from their prison cells, and authorities said the state was not communicating with their families or lawyers as to where they were going. And so it was. On Thursday, in the airports of Ankara and Cologne, 24 people were swapped, capping an immensely complicated logistical and diplomatic process involving seven countries. Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter convicted on made-up charges of spying for the C.I.A., and Paul Whelan, a former Marine also convicted of spying, were among those emancipated.