The Kremlin Gets What It Wants
The release of journalists and dissidents is good news—but the grubby reality is that the Russians have engaged in successful hostage-taking.
By Tom Nichols
Evan Gershkovich
Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP / Getty
August 1, 2024, 12:47 PM ET
Russia and its junior partner, Belarus, have agreed to a prisoner exchange with the United States and Germany. The deal includes the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and the Russian British journalist and Kremlin opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza among the people who are being released after arrests and convictions on various charges. Some Russian dissidents, including allies of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny—who himself died in a Russian prison—were also freed and allowed to leave the country.
The Russians, for their part, are going to get their usual basket of criminals, including Vadim Krasikov, a colonel in the Russian intelligence services who was sentenced to life in a German prison after carrying out a Kremlin-ordered hit on a Russian dissident in Berlin. Moscow’s shopping list also reportedly includes a Russian money launderer now in an American prison and two Russian spies caught in Slovenia.
www.theatlantic.com
The release of journalists and dissidents is good news—but the grubby reality is that the Russians have engaged in successful hostage-taking.
By Tom Nichols
Evan Gershkovich
Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP / Getty
August 1, 2024, 12:47 PM ET
Russia and its junior partner, Belarus, have agreed to a prisoner exchange with the United States and Germany. The deal includes the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and the Russian British journalist and Kremlin opponent Vladimir Kara-Murza among the people who are being released after arrests and convictions on various charges. Some Russian dissidents, including allies of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny—who himself died in a Russian prison—were also freed and allowed to leave the country.
The Russians, for their part, are going to get their usual basket of criminals, including Vadim Krasikov, a colonel in the Russian intelligence services who was sentenced to life in a German prison after carrying out a Kremlin-ordered hit on a Russian dissident in Berlin. Moscow’s shopping list also reportedly includes a Russian money launderer now in an American prison and two Russian spies caught in Slovenia.
The Kremlin Gets What It Wants
The release of journalists and dissidents is good news—but the grubby reality is that the Russians have engaged in successful hostage-taking.
www.theatlantic.com