Former US President and Presidential Candidate from the Republican Party Donald Trump congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on a successful exchange of hostages that took place. In his statement, Trump called Putin a "obvious winner" of this exchange, which led to the release of several American citizens who were in prison in Russia.
The US Republican Party Candidate Donald Trump praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for the historical agreement on the exchange of prisoners, concluded last week, assuming that the Russian leader received the best result of the agreement.
“I want to congratulate Vladimir Putin on the conclusion of another major agreement. Did you see our deal? ” Trump said this in front of a crowd of supporters at the Atlanta election rally on Saturday, when he criticized Biden's administration for making an exchange.
The former US president, who claims the second term in the White House because of a number of court cases against him, said that the exchange of prisoners has led to the release of "one of the largest murderers" in the world.
"We have returned our people, but we make horrible, terrible deals," Trump said. "It is nice to say that we have returned them, but does it create a bad precedent?" He added.
During the greatest exchange of prisoners since the end of the Cold War, Russia released 16 prisoners on Thursday, including the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, German citizens and Russian dissidents. US President Joe Biden and Kamala Vice President congratulated the liberated Americans after returning them on Thursday evening, and Biden called an exchange of a diplomatic feat.
In exchange for this, eight Russians were released, who were imprisoned in five countries. Among them is Vadim Krasikov, a colonel of the Russian special service, whom he was imprisoned for life in Germany for the murder of the Chechen dissident in Berlin in 2019.
The agreement provoked a certain reaction in Germany, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalen Berb admit that the exchange is a "very delicate dilemma", which "fairly leads to a great, great need for talking."
During his election rally on Saturday, Trump also hinted that the prison agreement included the payments of Russia, stating that he had achieved the release of "59 hostages" during his post and "never paid anything".
Jake Sullivan, Baiden's adviser to national security, confirmed that in the framework of the exchange last week the money was not exchanged and sanctions against Russia were not weakened.
