@nytimes: Three Americans freed from Russia arrived late Thursday night at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, where they were greeted by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris after their release was secured in a deal whose size and complexity have little precedent in the post-Soviet era. The deal freed Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who had spent 16 months in a Russian prison; Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian American editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, who was also arrested last year; and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine arrested in 2018. The deal involving seven countries — which came together after an elaborate web of negotiations behind the scenes — was a diplomatic victory for Biden, who has long pledged to bring home imprisoned Americans and to support Russia’s embattled pro-democracy movement.