As a historic prisoner exchange unfolds, a look back at other famous East-West swaps

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — After years of isolation behind the bars and high walls of U.S. penitentiaries and Russian penal colonies, the prisoners will find themselves suddenly free, an emotional moment culminating from long, back-channel negotiations between Washington and Moscow.

Sometimes, they see those who are part of the swap as they pass each other on an airport tarmac or, as in the Cold War, the Glienicke Bridge connecting West Berlin to Potsdam. In decades of prisoner exchanges, those released have included spies, journalists, drug and arms dealers, and even a well-known athlete.

Thursday's historic exchange was an especially complex affair involving months of talks among several countries before planes flew the large number of prisoners to freedom.

Some notable previous swaps:

The Dec. 9, 2022, exchange of the WNBA star for a Russian arms trader nicknamed the “merchant of death” was notable and controversial for the magnitude of its disparities.

Griner had been arrested 10 months earlier on arrival at a Moscow airport when vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. She was convicted of drug charges and sentenced to nine years in prison, a harsh sentence even in low-tolerance Russia.

Bout was arrested in 2008 in a U.S. sting operation in Thailand for offering to sell surface-to-air missiles to men masquerading as Colombian rebels. He eventually was extradited to the United States and convicted of charges, including conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, and sentenced to 25 years.

Griner's celebrity status made her case highly visible, and the Biden administration worked intensively to win her release, which came at the airport in Abu Dhabi. Critics said Washington had caved in to political pressure by swapping an arms dealer for a famous athlete.

The exchange of Reed and Yaroshenko was notable because it came amid soaring tensions only two months after Russia started its full-scale war in Ukraine.

Reed, an ex-Marine, was arrested in 2019 in Moscow for assaulting a police while allegedly drunk. Reed denied the allegations and then-U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan said the case was so preposterous that “even the judge laughed," but Reed got a sentence of nine years.

Yaroshenko, a pilot, was arrested in 2010 in Liberia for involvement in a lucrative cocaine distribution scheme. He was extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to 20 years.

The April 7, 2022, exchange took place at an airport in Turkey.

In June 2010, U.S. officials rounded up 10 Russians alleged to be “sleeper agents” — living under false identities without specific espionage missions — to be activated as needed. Most of the intelligence they gathered apparently was of low significance.

One exception was Anna Chapman, who captured attention in the tabloids with her long red hair and model-like features.

They Russians were exchanged the next month at the Vienna airport in an unusual swap for four Russians imprisoned in their homeland, including Sergei Skripal, a double agent working with the British intelligence service. Skripal took up residence in the U.K., where he and his daughter suffered near-fatal nerve agent poisoning eight years later that officials blamed on Russia.

In probably the most dramatic swap of the Cold War era, Abel and Powers were exchanged on Feb. 10, 1962, on the Glienicke Bridge connecting the U.S.-occupied zone of Berlin with East Germany.

Abel was the alias of British-born William Fisher, who moved to the Soviet Union and joined its intelligence operations in the 1920s. Posted to the U.S. in 1948, he was arrested on espionage charges in 1957 and sentenced to 30 years.

Powers piloted a U-2 high-altitude photo reconnaissance plane that was shot down over central Russia in 1960. Because of the highly sensitive nature of the flight, which was to photograph military facilities, Powers' gear included a coin coated with neurotoxin to be used to kill himself if discovered, but he did not use it.

The exchange on the “Bridge of Spies,” as it was known, was depicted in the 2015 film of the same name.

FILE - Francis Gary Powers (right), pilot of the U-2, sits in the dock of the Court in the hall of Columns in Moscow, August 17, 1960, at the opening of his Trials of Espionage. At left is his defence counsel, Mikhail Griniev. In probably the most dramatic swap of the Cold War era, Rudolf Abel and Francis Gary Powers were exchanged on Feb. 10, 1962, on the Glienicke Bridge connecting the U.S.-occupied zone of Berlin with East Germany.(AP-Photo, File)

FILE - Russian Col. Rudolf Abel, 55, right, steps from a patrol wagon in front of Brooklyn Federal Court in New York, Aug. 13, 1957, for an appearance on spy charges. He is accompanied by an unidentified U.S. Marshal. Abel, alleged head of military-atomic-secret espionage ring while posing as a Brooklyn artist won another postponement until Aug. 16 to obtain counsel. In probably the most dramatic swap of the Cold War era, Rudolf Abel and Francis Gary Powers were exchanged on Feb. 10, 1962, on the Glienicke Bridge connecting the U.S.-occupied zone of Berlin with East Germany. (AP Photo/Anthony Camerano, File)

FILE - Anna Chapman, who was deported from the U.S. on charges of espionage, displays a creation by Russian designers Shiyan & Rudkovskaya during a Fashion Week in Moscow, Russia on Sunday, April 3, 2011. In June 2010, U.S. officials rounded up 10 Russians, including Chapman, alleged to be "sleeper agents" — living under false identities without specific espionage missions — to be activated as needed. They were exchanged for four people imprisoned in Russia. (AP Photo /Luba Sheme, File)

FILE - Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20-years in prison for cocaine trafficking and exchanged for U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed, speaks at the International RUSSIA EXPO Forum and Exhibition in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024.Yaroshenko, a pilot, was arrested in 2010 in Liberia for involvement in a cocaine distribution scheme. He was extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to 20 years. In 2022, he was exchanged for ex-Marine Trevor Reed, who was jailed in Russia. (Pavel Bednyakov/Host photo agency Sputnik via AP, File)

FILE - Marine veteran Trevor Reed stands behind bars in a courtroom in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, July 20, 2020. Reed, an ex-Marine, was arrested in 2019 in Moscow for assaulting a police officer while allegedly drunk. Reed denied the allegations, but was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2022, he was released in an exchange involving pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko imprisoned in the U.S. (Andrei Nikerichev/Moscow News Agency via AP, File)

FILE - Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who was sentenced to 25 years in the United States, speaks to the media prior to an opening ceremony of the exhibition of his artworks at the Mosfilm studio in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Bout was arrested in 2008 in a U.S. sting operation in Thailand for offering to sell surface-to-air missiles to men masquerading as Colombian rebels. He was extradited to the United States, convicted and sentenced to 25 years. In December 2022, the U.S. released Bout in a prisoner swap for WNBA star Brittney Griner jailed in Russia. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

FILE - WNBA star Brittney Griner is escorted from court after a hearing in Khimki, just outside Moscow, Aug. 4, 2022. Griner was arrested in February 2022 at a Moscow airport when vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. Later that year, she was convicted of drug charges, sentenced to nine years in prison, and then exchanged for arms trader Viktor Bout imprisoned in the U.S. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

FILE - A cyclist passes over the Glienicke Bridge between Potsdam and Berlin, Germany, on May 6, 2009. They sometimes see those who are part of the swap as they pass each other on an airport tarmac or, as in the Cold War, the Glienicke Bridge connecting West Berlin to Potsdam. In decades of prisoner exchanges, those released have included spies, journalists, drug and arms dealers, and even a well-known athlete. (AP Photo/Sven Kaestner, File)

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — For many Haitian immigrants, Sunday mornings in Springfield, Ohio, are spent joyfully worshipping God as they sing and pray in their native Creole. This Sunday, they needed that uplifting balm more than ever.

Their community is reeling — confused, frustrated, hurt — from false accusations that they are eating their neighbor’s cats and dogs. The now viral and highly politicized rumors are being fueled by former President Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and others, and violent threats against the community are upending daily life in their city.

“Jesus is with us in truth, and the truth is that Haitians are not eating pets and geese in Springfield,” said the Rev. Carl Ruby, preaching at Central Christian Church. He invited community members to join his congregation in prayer and peaceful protest of the false rumors leveled against their Haitian neighbors.

They also demanded an apology.

“It is truth that a retraction of these rumors will help to restore peace in Springfield," Ruby said. “We respectfully call on all politicians and media figures who are promoting this rumor to help make Springfield great and safe again by speaking the truth about our community.”

Viles Dorsainvil, the leader of Haitian Community Help and Support Center in Springfield, accepted Ruby's invitation to worship together at Central Christian, and was grateful to be relying on his faith.

“It’s important to be here because we’re Christian — despite everything, we worship in good times and bad times,” he said. “I’m relieved that I’m in the presence of God. It’s therapeutic.”

And he had a message for Trump and Vance: “If they have the heart of God, they will think differently and speak differently.”

The rumors, spread on social media and by Trump during Tuesday’s televised presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, have exacerbated fears about division and anti-immigrant sentiment ahead of the election in the mostly white, blue-collar city of about 59,000 where more than 15,000 Haitians now live and work.

Thousands of temporary Haitian migrants have legally landed in Springfield in recent years under the U.S.'s Temporary Protected Status program, as longstanding unrest in their home country has given way to violent gangs ruling the streets.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has said the federal government needs to do more to help cities like Springfield serve the influx of migrants. On ABC’s “This Week," DeWine called the Haitians good, hardworking people who are in the U.S. legally, and said the false rumors are a piece of internet garbage.

“There’s no evidence of this at all,” he said during the program.

Despite the governor and local officials debunking the rumors, Vance reiterated the conspiracy theory on Sunday's “Face the Nation” on CBS while blasting Harris on her U.S.-Mexico border policy.

At Central Christian Church, Ruby encouraged his congregation to help hand out thousands of cards around Springfield that had been printed in Creole and English with a message of support for Haitians. It reads" “I’m glad you are here. Christ loves you and so do I."

As the service ended, Ruby praised parishioners for a beautiful moment amid what he called a storm of chaos. Looking at the Haitian members n the first pew and at the rest of his congregation, he asked them to come together in prayer: “Pray and think what it is to be a Haitian parent sending their child this week to school."

One of those parents is Mia Perez, 35 an immigration lawyer whose 9-year-old daughter had to evacuate her school twice because of bomb threats to a nearby DMV this week.

“Kids in school are being asked by other kids: ’How does the dog taste? How does the cat taste?” Perez said, describing her daughter’s distress.

"She’s asking, 'Are we the kind of Haitians who eat this kind of stuff? Is it true? What’s happening?'”

“This is a conversation that I was not ready to have with my daughter," Perez said. "I felt disrespected of our culture.”

Among those attending Sunday's service in Central Christian was Rose-Thamar Joseph, 40, who works at the Haitian Community Center.

“I was praying for peace and protection — for the Haitian community and all of Springfield," she said. “I just want Springfield to go back to what it was a couple of months ago."

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Carl Ruby, pastor at Central Christian Church, hugs Viles Dorsainvil during service, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Members of the Haitian community, from left, Lindsay Aime, James Fleurijean, Rose-Thamar Joseph, Harold Herard, and Viles Dorsainvil, stand for worship with Carl Ruby, pastor at Central Christian Church, in Springfield, Ohio, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Carl Ruby, pastor at Central Christian Church, hugs Lindsay Aime during service, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Central Christian Church congregants stand to applaud members of the Haitian community during service, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)

Members of the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, from left, Lindsay Aime, James Fleurijean, Viles Dorsainvil, and Rose-Thamar Joseph, stand for worship at Central Christian Church, on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)