Historic prisoner swap between Russia and West rocks Ankara
The echoes of the high-profile prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries have not died down. Vladimir Putin personally welcomed the freed Russians, who had spied for the Kremlin in the West, at the airport. One of them, Roman Seleznev, shared his impressions of the meeting.
8:57 AM EDT, August 4, 2024
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The 32-year-old hacker was serving a sentence in the United States for hacking into the databases of about 200 American companies. Seleznev did not hide his admiration for the welcome prepared by Putin's regime.
When we arrived, Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] personally shook my hand. I almost fainted when I got off the plane. We were told nothing about who was meeting us or what was going on....> I came out, staggering, I think. I see all this—the red carpet, the National Guard, and our president standing there, greeting us. I was in shock, of course—the convict reported.
He stressed that it "meant a lot to him."
Historical prisoner exchange between Russia and the West
The largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War between Russia and Western countries took place in Ankara on Thursday, international agencies emphasize. According to the Turkish service Anatolia, the operation involved 24 people from prisons in seven countries, including Poland, and two children.
In exchange for getting its people out of the West, Vladimir Putin released political prisoners, including opposition activists and journalists, who were held as de facto hostages. Among them is The Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who, according to commentators, was detained on alleged espionage charges precisely so the Kremlin could pressure the U.S.
German citizen Rico Krieger, who was sentenced to death in Belarus and then pardoned by Alexander Lukashenko, was also reportedly deliberately drawn into the operational game to allow the Kremlin to exert pressure on Berlin.
According to Turkish authorities, 10 people, including two minors, were relocated to Russia, 13 to Germany, and three to the U.S. The exchange involved people from prisons in the U.S., Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus.
