Matthew, you know, when you think about how all this happened, and I referenced, you know, changes at the FSB's Fifth Service, you also have, as so central to this, we know Vladimir

Putin wanted the return of an assassin who was serving a life sentence in Germany, Vadym

Krasikov, and that there were some in the German government who did not want to do this.

And all these pieces and players had to come into place at the right time, with the right conversations, for this to happen.

But yet, ultimately, Matthew, Vladimir Putin had to say yes.

And why do you think he said yes now?

I think this is a great deal for Vladimir Putin.

He has managed to basically get back a Kremlin assassin, a colonel in the FSB, who killed in broad daylight a Chechen dissident in the center of the German capital.

In exchange, as well as a lot of other people as well, who Russia is interested in and may have information that Russia wants to keep to itself and not be disclosed to its rivals.

In exchange for a group of individuals who, for all intents and purposes, did nothing wrong, people like Evan Gershkovich, who was doing his job as a journalist.

He was accused and convicted of espionage, of spying for the CIA, but he categorically denied it, as did the U.S.

government. Paul Whelan as well, this former Marine who's been in a Russian jail for the best part of the past six years.

He was in Moscow attending a wedding and he was accused and convicted and sentenced to 16 years for spying as well.

And so, yes, this is a big tactical victory on the part of the United States.

They're bringing these people home.

But strategically, this is a vindication, I think, for Vladimir Putin of his strategy of taking bargaining chips and using them to extract as big a concession as possible from the United States and from the West at large.

And so, you know, this is a an important day.

It's an emotional day, but it's also a day that has involved a substantial amount of moral compromise on the part of the West to get these people back.

Let's get some perspective from our experts now.

We're joined by CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, alongside CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.

And we're also joined by NATO's former Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark.

Thank you all for being with us, Alex.

Take us through how the next few hours are going to play out when these prisoners finally get to the United States.

So thankfully, we're past the hardest part.

The exchange has taken place.

The prisoners are heading home to their respective countries.

When it comes to the United States, they are going to be coming home and then offered medical and psychological services.

Now, MJ mentioned there that President Biden is expected to to go out to Andrews, Joint

Base Andrews.

So we could see these four, the three Americans plus Vladimir Karamuza, who is a green card holder, coming to the East Coast.

But they will be offered the opportunity to go out to San Antonio, Texas.

The Brooke Army Medical Center is part of the biggest defense department complex in their system.

And they have a special program called PISA, P-I-S-A, that is designed to help people essentially get back on their feet after traumatic events.

This is something that Brittany Griner, for example, went through and Trevor Reed was offered.

And so oftentimes we will see people landing in San Antonio, Texas.

I think that the obviously family reunions are going to be their biggest priority.

We saw some of the family members there with President Biden.

And so after that, they will be given all of the necessary things that they will that they may need to adjust and get back on their feet.

So this is a tremendously happy moment.

Obviously, Paul Whelan's family waiting for almost six years since he was arrested in 2018.

Evan Gershkovich's family having to deal with his conviction last month to 16 years in a

Russian penal colony.

Thankfully, just over a month later, he and the other three are coming back to the U.S.

And the details of just the scope of this and the secrecy of it, Kim, fascinating, as

The Wall Street Journal has reported this.

In the wake of Alexei Navalny's death, there was this shuttle diplomacy of paper only proposals that were being hand delivered between NSA Jake Sullivan's office and his counterpart in Germany.

I mean, this was sort of the secrecy of it.

How different is something like this just because of the sheer size of it?

It reminds me actually of the planning of the Osama bin Laden mission, that they kept it in a very small group of people.

And yet I'm also thinking about the relief and the elation of that small group of people who've been working on this.

That has to include not just the National Security Advisor's office, but Roger Karsten's, the hostage envoy and his team from the State Department.

Now, Roger started this job under Mike Pompeo's State Department, and a lot of the same people have stayed with him.

And they've worked this 24-7, not for days or months, but for years to get to this point, to get Dave Whelan out, in addition to Paul and Alsu, who was taken more recently.

And it reminds me, so Roger is a former Green Beret, and their motto is De Oppresso Liber to Free the Oppressed.

And it's really nice to be talking about the great news of these people being released.

I would also add Robert O'Brien, the former National Security Advisor to former President

Trump, highly critical of the Biden administration when it comes to their approach.

He says that this encourages more hostage-taking, and yet he praises Roger Karsten's when given the chance.

Yeah.

So it's just sort of a very...

He handed that job off to Roger.

That's right.

Yeah.

I was just going to say that, look, we're going to, once the welcoming, the pictures on the tarmac are out, we're going to move on to crass politics, and then we're going to start asking the questions, why did Moscow not wait for a potential Trump presidency?

Moscow has given a real win to the Biden-Harris administration by having this happen now.

And I think it could go back to the delicate negotiations among the small group of people that you were asking about.

Germany was willing to do this for the Biden-Harris administration now.

They had the KGB colonel who assassinated someone available to give and trade now.

And Moscow decided, let's do it.

That appears to have been the linchpin of this entire agreement.

We do have some news to share with you.

We've learned that Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed decrees to pardon those released in Thursday's prisoner swap.

General Clark, I'm curious to get your perspective of not only the timing of this, but the sheer scale of it.

This is a huge deal.

Yeah, really complicated.

Took years to do.

Lots of intricate negotiations started before President Biden came to office, obviously.

And now it's been culminated.

I think all the questions are still out there to be answered.

But I think, you know, if I just put myself in Putin's views, he's got the colonel back.

He's looking at what's happening in American politics.

There's a couple of lessons here.

Number one is, maybe he's not as, maybe he doesn't feel confident that Trump's actually going to get elected.

Number two is, he might be sending a message to Donald Trump, you've got to be even nicer to me if you want my support.

So there's a lot of dimensions of this.

But I think the bottom line is, we should be very happy it's been done.

We've got our people back.

And I just, I don't agree with the idea that this is going to promote more hostage taking.

Look, that's always out there.

It's always a possibility.

This effort reflects America's values.

We're proud of our values.

We stand up for them and we take care of our people.