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Trump congratulates Putin for Russia-US prisoner exchange

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Trump congratulates Putin for Russia-US prisoner exchange
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Crotona Park in New York City, on May 23, 2024 (JB Lacroix/GC Images)

At a Georgia rally on Aug. 3, Donald Trump congratulated Russian dictator Vladimir Putin for the historic prisoner exchange arranged by U.S. President Joe Biden that freed 16 people wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, including the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

"By the way, I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal,” Trump said. “Did you see the deal we made? Now look, we want to get people in. We got 59 hostages — I never paid anything."

"They released some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world," Trump added. "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?"

The historic release included 16 prisoners freed from Russia, including five Germans and seven Russian citizens being held as political prisoners. President Joe Biden thanked Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey for helping with the multi-country prisoner swap. Biden did not praise Putin in his remarks.

Turkey's National Intelligence Organization was a mediator in the Aug. 1 prisoner exchange involving 26 people from seven countries — U.S., Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia, and Belarus.

Gershkovich, Whelan, Kara-Murza released in major prisoner swap between Russia, West
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan are being released by Russia in a multi-country prisoner exchange, Bloomberg reported on Aug. 1, citing undisclosed sources.
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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