The White House reported that the most profound trade between Russia and the West in decades took place on Thursday during which seven countries released the release of the Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich, two different Americans, and various inmates of Russian opposition figures.
There is little precedent for the post-Soviet era’s range of the deal. In a separate release from Russian custody, for the first time since the Soviet Union’s fall, important dissidents were freed as part of a swap. After months of tense negotiations between various countries that are otherwise deeply divided over Russian brutality in Ukraine, eight people were freed by the West in exchange.
The exchange took place at the international airport in Ankara, Turkiye’s money, and involved seven different flights ferrying 24 captives from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus, a Turkish intelligence official said. The agreement appeared to have sparked a wave of acclaim among European governments, which had condemned the accusations made against the imprisoned Americans and opposition images as unjustifiable and politically motivated. Prez Biden, who has long vowed to free imprisoned Americans and help Russia’s burgeoning pro-democracy movement, won a political victory as a result. The captives had left Russia and were heading home, according to Biden at a press conference. ” Their terrible struggle is over, and they’re free”, he said, surrounded by family members of the released captives.
For Prez Putin of Russia, who can use the package to demonstrate his steadfast commitment to Russian officials detained abroad, it was also a unique kind of triumph. But the package even carried risks at home for him, by releasing imprisoned officials who had energize Russia’s dead, exiled criticism.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, did not specifically confirm a swap, but he was quoted by the state news agency TASS as saying that, in theory,” all our enemies should stay ( across ) and all those who are not our enemies should return.”
In the last big change in 2010, 14 captives were exchanged. Brittney Griner, a US baseball player who had smoke cartridges filled with cannabis oil in her luggage, was given a nine-year sentence by Russia in December 2022 for arms trader Viktor Bout, who is currently serving a 25-year phrase in the US.
