Trump: Prisoner exchange between Russia and West "Victory for Putin"
"I won't criticize it, as it's good that they are back home," said Trump, referring to the 16 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's a very bad precedent."
While it's "wonderful" that Gershkovich has returned home, "these deals are so bad that they will lead to enormous abductions," he said, trying to downplay President Joe Biden's success in securing the agreement.
Trump had previously boasted that only he could secure Gershkovich's release - and only if re-elected. Now, he used the prisoner exchange to attack Biden. In the interview, he said that Biden and his vice president, and likely Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, are "not respected" on the international stage.
On his online platform Truth Social, the former president also speculated about the details of the prisoner exchange. "Did we pay them money too?" he asked on Thursday. "Are we releasing murderers, killers, or thugs?"
The US national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, said on Thursday that no concessions were made for the agreement. No money was paid, and no sanctions against Russia were eased.
Russia and its ally Belarus, and on the other side Germany, the US, and three other NATO states, carried out the prisoner exchange on Thursday afternoon in the Turkish capital Ankara. Relations between the West and Russia are at an all-time low since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022; the government in Ankara is trying to maintain good ties with both Russia and Ukraine.
Despite the successful prisoner exchange involving the European Union member states and Russia, Trump criticized it as setting a "very bad precedent" for future negotiations. Furthermore, he questioned whether any monetary concessions were made to Russia during this exchange, as he continued to attack President Joe Biden over the issue on his online platform.
