The largest slave transfer in post-Cold War history took place between the United States and Russia, involving 24 captives.
A global agreement that included the release of a Belarusian contract killer and included Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich and other American Paul Whelan.
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Whelan has been in jail since 2018 while Gershkovich has been since March 2023.  ,
Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted of killing a past Chechen insurgent in Germany in 2021, was given by the Russians. He was a murderer who also had ties to numerous another murders. Additionally, Romanian intelligence had apprehended two sleeper brokers.
The switch involved seven different countries overall.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did meet the people of the released Americans , for a photo-op , on Thursday night at Andrews Air Force Base. Donald Trump was criticized by Biden for his frequently repeated claim that he could release prisoners where Biden was not.
When asked about Trump’s claim, Biden retorted,” Why did n’t he do it when he was president”?
Most of the released prisoners were jailed during Biden’s president.
There were a number of Putin reviewers released as well, including Alsu Kurmasheva.
Alsu Kurmasheva, a double U. S. Russian nationwide, was arrested in 2023 in her hometown of Kazan, where she was visiting her ailing mom. The Prague-based director for the U. S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir company was accused of not self-reporting as a “foreign broker” and was convicted in July of spreading false information about the Russian military — costs rejected by her home and workplace. Kurmasheva, 47, was sentenced to 6½ years in prison.
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Another protesters released include:
Ilya Yashin, a well-known Kremlin writer, was serving an 8 12 year sentence for her criticism of the Russian-occupied Ukraine. One of the few well-known criticism activists to remain in Russia since the war was Yussin, a former member of a Moscow provincial council.
Andrei PivovarovV, 42, headed the criticism party Start Russia, outlawed in 2021. He was detained the following year after being pulled off a journey. In 2022, he was convicted of carrying out activities of an “undesirable” firm and sentenced to four years in captivity.
Experienced human rights advocate Oleg Orlov was found guilty of discrediting the Russian defense and given a two-year prison sentence in February for his protests against the Ukrainian conflict. Orlov, 71, is co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning animal rights team Memorial.
The launch of one of Putin’s hit people, Vadim Krasikov, was perhaps inevitable given the importance that Putin put on his liberty.
Krasikov murdered Zelimkhan” Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Victorian resident who had fought Russian forces in Chechnya. He was given asylum in Germany. He probably carried out another assassinations of Putin critics both domestically and abroad as a mobster for the FSB.
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The release of Whelan and Gershkovich is a good point. That Putin feels he can snatch them off the streets with impunity does n’t speak well of Joe Biden’s administration.
