Trump: 'Prisoner exchange is victory for Putin'
Russia and some Western countries exchanged 26 prisoners on Thursday. Turkey coordinated the international prisoner exchange. It marks the biggest prisoner exchange between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. The 26 prisoners involved are from Russia, Belarus, the United States, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
The Europe Union is relieved at the release of several political prisoners, including therefore some EU citizens. European High Representative for Foreign Policy Josep Borrell said so on Thursday evening.
But Donald Trump considers the prisoner swap a great victory for Vladimir Putin above all. "The Russians did a great deal. I'm not going to criticise that one, because it's good that they're home, but they got a phenomenal deal and that sets a very bad precedent," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business. The West sent 10 people to Russia, including a man who committed murder in Germany for the Russian intelligence agency FSB.
Trump called it "stunning" that Evan Gershkovich, a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, has returned to the United States. But he also said that "these deals are so bad, they lead to massive kidnappings". Former President Donald Trump previously stated several times that he would get Gershkovich released and used the journalist's imprisonment to criticise current President Biden.
(SR for Tagtik/Source: Reuters - AFP/Illustration picture: Picture by michael_vadon via WikiCommons licensed under cc_by_sa_2_0)
