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Among the key Western officials involved in the bargaining was Congressman Benjamin Gilman, a New York Republican who has worked quietly to obtain free dom for a number of people imprisoned by Communist regimes. For the East bloc, the chief negotiator was East German Lawyer Wolfgang Vogel, an old hand at spy swapping. He negotiated the 1962 exchange of Francis Gary Powers, the American pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the U.S.S.R., for top Soviet Spy Rudolf Abel, who was imprisoned in the U.S. More recently, Vogel has acted as the primary channel through which Bonn has been getting East Germany to free political prisoners by paying ransom money (up to $35,000 per prisoner).
Clearly well rewarded for his work, Vogel drives a gold-colored Mercedes sedan, wears gold watches and elegant Western-style clothes, lives in a plush villa outside East Berlin and has a comfort able lakeside dacha. His most envied badge of privilege, however, may well be his "open" visa; it apparently allows him to pass freely through the Berlin Wall to visit the West.
There are indications that Vogel may be ready to make more deals. One candidate is Captain Nikolai Artamonov, a Soviet naval officer who defected to the U.S. in 1959, assumed the name Nicholas Shadrin and then disappeared in Vienna 2½ years ago, possibly while on a U.S. intelligence assignment.
Although the Soviets insist that they know nothing, it is widely believed that Artamonov was kidnaped by the KGB.
The most intriguing speculation focuses on Anatoli Shcharansky, the Soviet computer expert who has been held incommunicado in a Moscow prison for more than a year be cause of his activities as an out spoken refusenik, the common nickname for Jews who have applied to Soviet officials for permission to emigrate but have been refused. Although Moscow is preparing to try Shcharansky soon, apparently on charges of anti-Soviet activity or possibly treason, Vogel has told Congressman Gilman that the Kremlin may be ready to deal for his release. The Soviets may even be willing to trade their prisoner for some one being held outside the U.S. This could replay the 1976 barter that freed Dissident Vladimir Bukovsky from his Rus sian cell in return for Chilean Commu nist Party Leader Luis Corvalan, who had been jailed by his country's ruling junta Whatever form a Shcharansky deal may take, if one develops at all, the Carter Ad ministration seems almost certain to resist it if it implies that Shcharansky spied for the U.S.—a charge frequently made by the Soviet press but vigorously denied by the White House.