Relief and criticism for prisoner exchange

Since the end of the Cold War, no prisoner exchange between Russia and the West has resulted in the release of so many people simultaneously. On Thursday, a deal freed 16 prisoners from Russian and Belarusian jails, and eight prisoners in the West. The deal has been hailed as historic, but it has also drawn criticism.

“Now their terrible ordeal is over, and they are free,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a televised address to the three freed U.S. citizens and permanent resident.

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Among them is the journalist from Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich, detained since March 2023, and former Marine Paul Whelan – also Canadian, Irish and British – arrested in Moscow in 2018. Both had been sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage, accusations they have always denied.

Russian dissidents are also among the released prisoners, transferred to the West.

A Russian Murderer

But the track record of prisoners handed over to Russia in exchange for these releases has drawn criticism. Mainly in the case of Vadim Krassikov, sentenced to life in prison for the murder in Berlin of a former Chechen separatist commander, on behalf of the Russian security services.

The German branch of Amnesty International deplored “a step towards the extension of judicial impunity”.

“Today is a day of celebration for the families of the hostages – and I think hostage is the right word to describe people held in Russian prisons – but in the aftermath of all this, we have to look at things soberly, and I’m afraid the picture is not so rosy or encouraging,” Aurel Braun, a professor of international relations and political science at the University of Toronto, said by phone.

He is concerned about the message sent to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the potential gains to be made by imprisoning innocent people to secure the release of criminals useful to the regime. An observation already raised by analysts during the 2022 release of American basketball player Brittney Griner, arrested in Moscow with an e-cigarette containing cannabis-based liquid, versus that of Russian Viktor Bout, imprisoned in the United States for arms trafficking.

Role of Germany

Germany appears to have dithered before agreeing to release Mr Krasikov. But Mr Putin’s release in 2021 would have been a prerequisite for any deal.

“Important concessions” were made by the German government as part of the diplomatic effort, acknowledged Mr. Biden, who expressed his “great gratitude” to Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

“It’s hard to say whether this is a good deal or a bad deal for the United States and other countries, because you have to weigh the lives of innocent people in a difficult situation against the punishment for a crime,” said Lisa Sundstrom, a political science professor at the University of British Columbia. “It’s a question of competing values.”

The other prisoners released Thursday from Western prisons had been convicted of espionage, fraud or data theft. The children of a couple convicted in Slovenia of espionage, who were placed in foster care, were also able to travel to Russia with their parents as part of the exchange.

Five prisoners with German citizenship have been released from Russian and Belarusian prisons.

Russian opponents

Less commonly, Russian opponents are also among the prisoners that the Kremlin has agreed to release, allowing them to join a Western country.

The best known is Vladimir Kara-Murza, also a British citizen, sentenced in April 2023 to 25 years in prison for “treason” and spreading “false information” about the war in Ukraine. He had already suffered two poisonings in the past, attributed by different news media, such as Bellingcat And The Mirrorto the Russian secret service. He received the Pulitzer Prize in May for his articles.

Oleg Orlov of the NGO Memorial and two of Alexei Navalny’s collaborators, Lilia Chanysheva and Ksenia Fadeyeva, were also released.

Western countries involved in the talks also reportedly tried to include Mr Navalny in an exchange before his death in a Russian penal colony last February.

These releases of national dissidents to another country are not unprecedented, but are rarer. “But what assurances do Western countries have that Mr. Putin will not send new assassins to deal with them, what is his deterrent?” asks Mr. Braun.

This round of negotiations took place over “several months,” according to the newspaper. The Mirrorquoted by Agence France-Presse. The Wall Street Journal also described the long fight to bring Evan Gershkovich home, “involving intelligence agencies, billionaires, political figures and his most ardent defender – his mother.”

The prisoner exchange took place in Turkey and involved seven countries: Russia, the United States, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Poland and Belarus.

With Agence France-Presse and the Wall Street Journal