source: Democracy Now!

published: 2 August 2024

Image Credit: www.pexels.com

We speak with The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel about the prisoner swap between Russia, the United States and several other countries on Thursday that saw the release of 24 people, with 16 prisoners in Russia traded for eight Russian nationals held in the U.S., Germany and elsewhere.

It was the biggest exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West since the Cold War era. Among those released are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. marine Paul Whelan and Russian American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva. Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian assassin who was in German custody after the 2019 killing of a Chechen dissident in Berlin, was also released and sent back to Moscow.

Vanden Heuvel says it was “an extraordinary swap” that could pave the way for more diplomacy to wind down the war in Ukraine. “Negotiations and diplomacy are not about capitulation. They're about improving the conditions of a world which is too militarized and at war.”

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