08/04/2024August 4, 2024
Trump congratulates Putin on ‘great deal’ over prisoner swap
Former US President lauded Russian President on a between Russia, Belarus and the West.
Thursday’s swap deal saw Russia and Belarus release 16 people, jailed for their activities as journalists and activists, among others, while 10 people imprisoned in various Western countries were handed over to Moscow.
“I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal,” the Republican presidential candidate said at a campaign event in Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia. In turn, he implied it had been a bad deal from a US perspective.
Two high-profile US citizens — Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US marine Paul Whelan — returned home from Russia under the deal, while Russian Vadim Krasikov, jailed for life in Germany for the 2021 shooting in Berlin of Georgian national of Chechen descent, was also freed.
“They released some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world,” Trump said. “Some of the most evil killers they got. And we got our people back, but boy, we made some horrible, horrible deals. And it’s nice to say we got them back, but does that set a bad precedent?”
Again, implying without evidence that money had exchanged hands as part of the deal, Trump pointed to his own record of bringing home US citizens held abroad, stressing: “I never paid anything.”
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