the debt was old, going back 35 years to carter/reagan era. part of 12 bil we froze but agreed to repay and were decades late.
part of their conditions for returning our spies was paying back some of what we promised.
i dont see the real biggie here... they didn't just pluck up 4 tourists planting flowers lol. 100 mil per spy is an okay deal when you consider 1) the other bullshit we spend millions on, and 2) it was a debt that reagan agreed to pay - obama was just keeping reagan's word
