Former US President Donald Trump has sharply criticized the prisoner exchange between Russia and the West and described it as a “victory” for Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. “The Russians made a great deal,” said the Republican presidential candidate in a TV interview with Fox Business broadcast on Friday morning (local time). But it was “a victory for Putin.”
“I’m not going to criticize that, because it’s good that they’re back home,” Trump said, referring to the 16 people released in the exchange, including US reporter Evan Gershkovich, former US soldier Paul Whelan and US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. But the other side “made a phenomenal deal,” Trump criticized. “And that sets a very bad precedent.”
While it was “wonderful” that Gershkovich had returned home, “these deals are so bad that these deals are going to lead to enormous kidnappings,” he said, trying to downplay President Joe Biden’s success in bringing about the agreement.
Trump had repeatedly boasted in the past that he was the only one capable of securing Gershkovich’s release – and only if he was re-elected. Now he used the prisoner exchange to lash out at Biden. In the interview, Trump said of Biden and his vice president, the likely Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, that they were “not respected” on the international stage.
On his online platform Truth Social, the former president also speculated about the details of the prisoner exchange. “Are we paying them money too?” he asked on Thursday. “Are we releasing murderers, manslaughters or thugs?”
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at the White House on Thursday that no concessions were made to bring about the agreement. No money was paid and no sanctions against Russia were relaxed.
Russia and its ally Belarus, as well as Germany, the USA and three other NATO states, carried out the prisoner exchange on Thursday afternoon in the Turkish capital Ankara. Relations between the West and Russia have been at a low point since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; the government in Ankara is trying to maintain good contacts with both Russia and Ukraine.
