Trump praises Putin for 'great deal' in prisoner exchange
Photo: ex-president of the USA Donald Trump (getty images)
During a campaign rally in Atlanta, Georgia, US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump congratulated Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on a "great deal," referring to the prisoner exchange between Russia and Western countries.
"I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal," Trump said at the rally.
At the same time, he noted that, in his opinion, the exchange was "horrible" for the US. Russia managed to secure the release of "some of the greatest killers," he remarked, posing the rhetorical question, "Does that set a bad precedent?"
"We got our people back, but boy, we made some horrible, horrible deals," Trump added.
Large exchange
On August 1, Western countries conducted a prisoner exchange with Russia. Moscow released convicted journalists, US and German citizens, as well as Russian opposition figures imprisoned on political grounds.
Among those returned to the US were Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and former Marine Paul Whelan.
In exchange, the West handed over Russian spies, undercover FSB agents, and assassins to Moscow. Notably, Germany extradited Vadim Krasikov, who had been serving a life sentence there for the 2019 murder of former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.
Negotiations for the exchange lasted more than two years. The release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was also reportedly discussed.
Trump's admiration for Putin
Trump has repeatedly expressed admiration for the Russian dictator — calling him a "better leader than Obama," referring to Putin's actions in Donbas as "genius" on the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and even after the war began, claiming that Putin was more trustworthy than US intelligence.
