FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
From the beginning of the negotiations, it became clear that the main prisoner to be exchanged for Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian agent sentenced to life in prison in Germany for the murder of a Chechen political dissident in Berlin in 2019, and whom Putin has praised him publicly.
Considered by US President Joe Biden himself as a "act of diplomacy and friendship", the exchange of 24 prisoners negotiated by Russia and the United States is historic in many respects.
It led to the release on Thursday of 16 Western hostages and Russian political prisoners, including the American journalist of the famous Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich, and his colleague, Alsu Kurmasheva, a correspondent of Radio Free Europe.
The development is historic, firstly because it is the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War. Aside from the change of scenery - the exchange is not done by walking over the Glienicker Brücke bridge in Berlin, or as it has since been known as the "bridge of espionage" - the process took place with the help of a fleet of aircraft at an airport in Turkey.
The operation recalls the old confrontation between East and West. Negotiated in the utmost secrecy for more than a year at multiple levels, and against the backdrop of the bloody war in Ukraine, the exchange involved the CIA, the State Department and the White House, as well as several allied governments.
He was especially helped by a specific communication channel, created by Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin at their summit in Geneva in June 2021. So it can be affirmed that we are dealing with a success of diplomacy.
But the "friendship", which Biden publicly greeted in his public appearance regarding this matter, is not addressed to Russia, but to European countries, and primarily to Germany. But also Norway, Poland and Slovenia, which cooperated in this difficult effort.
From the beginning of the negotiations, it became clear that the main prisoner to be exchanged for Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian agent sentenced to life in prison in Germany for the murder of a Chechen political dissident in Berlin in 2019, and whom Putin has praised him publicly.
However, for Berlin, and especially for German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, his release was tantamount to guaranteeing impunity for these types of Moscow-sponsored political murders abroad.
It took quite a bit of effort for US President Biden to convince Chancellor Olaf Scholz to back off on this issue. In exchange for the release, Berlin asked to include in the exchange several Germans and leading Russian pro-democracy activists imprisoned in Russia, including one of the most prominent Russian opposition leaders Vladimir Kara-Murza.
A disgusting practice
With this practice, Alexei Navalny, the main political opponent of Vladimir Putin, should have been released. He was part of the secret US-Russia negotiations, with the special insistence of Germany. His death under still unclear circumstances in the prison where he was imprisoned, announced on February 16 this year by Moscow, as the talks progressed in the utmost secrecy, best demonstrates the high degree to which the Kremlin remains obsessed with the old, brutal models of the Soviet-era KGB.
Equally revealing of the nature of Moscow's current regime is the fact that the Russian citizens whose release the Kremlin secured from this exchange, and who were lavishly welcomed by Putin to the Kremlin, are neither political activists nor journalists.
Rather, they are criminals, such as Krasikov, or spies, as in the case of the pair of Russian agents who lived in Slovenia under false Argentinian identities until they were discovered. The only difference with the Cold War has to do with what has become an abhorrent, much-loved practice favored by regimes like Russia and Iran: hostage diplomacy.
Today, any foreigner living in these countries risks being arrested and used as a bargaining chip during such negotiations. French citizen Laurent Vinatier, imprisoned in Moscow since June of this year, is one of these hostages.
In the end, we reiterate: it is to be praised that 16 people unjustly imprisoned have already regained their freedom. But let's make no mistake about Moscow's motives: this is by no means the beginning of a new détente between Russia and the US or the West as a whole./ Adapted "Pamphlet" from "Le Monde"
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