(VitalNews.org) – A United States-Russia prisoner exchange has officially been negotiated and is finally coming to fruition after talks of an exchange for months.
Three Americans that were held in Russia in prison have been released and were seen jumping into the hands of their family members as they stepped off of a plane alongside President Joe Biden. This particular prisoner exchange was much more complicated than it usually would be due to the predicament and the details behind the exchange.
Prisoners Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich, and Alsu Kurmasheva were all a part of America’s side of the exchange. Analysts have said that the deal is the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War. Analysts have also said that this is the result of statesmanship and that it could have repercussions across the globe for years.
Many people who were looking at Russia thought that they would potentially wait until the election to see if another administration would be in office before making a prisoner swap deal. However, the director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Max Bergmann, said that the upcoming election is most likely what pushed the Kremlin to make a move.
Bergmann said, “If there’s a change in power in four months, then how is a deal like this struck? You have to start from scratch. So, I could see that creating a degree of forcing function.”
Experts have also said that this prisoner exchange does not mean that Russian President Vladimir Putin is willing to negotiate on other matters. Many have said that it instead shows the selfishness of the Kremlin and that the prisoner exchange was finally approved because of the gain that Russia would get.
“I think that sends a signal to the Russian people that the United States is also concerned about the future of Russia,” Bergmann said.
This swap was also interesting because it wasn’t just the United States and Russia making the decisions, but allies of the U.S. like Germany, Norway, Poland, and Slovenia also had to hand over criminals without seeing any gains.
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