According to the Wall Street Journal, the key figure in the recent prisoner swap with Russia was German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. That's because the main sticking point was the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin serving a life sentence in Germany for gunning down a Chechen exile in Berlin:
During a meeting in Saudi Arabia in early spring, the Germans revealed for the first time that they were ready to release Krasikov, but warned the Russians that the price would be much higher than previously discussed.
....The negotiations had dragged for so long that Russia started jailing Germans. By the talks’ final stages, about 30 German citizens were detained by Russia and its satellite, Belarus. Initially, Scholz refused to engage in hostage diplomacy, but after one German was sentenced to death in Belarus, the strategy became untenable.
Welcome to Vladimir Putin's Russia. Talks not going your way? Just keep kidnapping Germans until they see the light. What a monstrous, murderous thug.
You know, that's a lot of effort for one guy. Would Trump have made that effort?
Maybe the point is that in order to have more guys going out and doing what Krasikov did, they need to know that Putin has their backs?
This is same idea I have. So hard to find good wetworkers. Prisoner exchange is part of benefits package.
Yeah, but most of the Trump mouthpieces think he's great because he "protects Christian culture" and "doesn't call me a racist."
Hard to say who is worse.
Is Barak Obama a "a monstrous, murderous thug"? He sent Seal Team 6 after bin Laden in a foreign country, who then shot bin Laden dead point blank, in cold blood. They could have easily taken him prisoner (although that would have opened a can of worms and created a whole ton of problems, plus if anybody deserves to die bin Laden would be at the top of the list; so I don't blame them).
That "Chechen exile" was a murderous thug himself. He was a Chechen-Georgian militant with ISIS ties, who reportedly executed Russian POWs by laying then down on the road and then driving a car over them (reportedly over their heads, crushing their sculls).
If anybody did this to US POWs, I bet we would send a death squad after this guy, and I bet Kevin Drum would be just fine with that.
Wow, amazing non-false equivalency logic like that has totally convinced me! I now think that the only thing wrong with what Putin did is that he didn't pretextually arrest/kidnap even more innocent Germans to protest the hypocrisy of German authorities arresting and convicting poor, poor Krasikov.
Poor, poor Krasikov! Just a Russian patriot (wink!) and not a hired extrajudicial assassin! Sure, the courts convicted him of murdering a man by shooting him in the head in the middle of Berlin amidst innocent onlookers, but we all know the real truth: that Germany simply hates Putin/Russia maybe and also the US is worse somehow.
Nice straw man argument. Nobody claims Krasikov is some "poor, poor" guy. He is a Russian military operative sent to kill somebody who had committed a war crime (executing POWs) - I think most normal people would agree that lining up POWs on a road and then running over them is a violation of the Geneva convention, hence a war crime.
Just like Obama sent US military operatives (Seal Team 6) to kill bin Laden, who had carried out a terrorist act against US (killing 3000+ civilians).
Now you could say, Russians should have asked for extradition. Actually, they have done that - quite a few Chechens (who have committed crimes that most normal people would agree are real crimes) have asked and received asylum in the West and when Russia asked for extradition, the Western countries routinely refuse. Let me check this, should Obama have asked Pakistanis to extradite bin Laden?
The fact that a German court convicted Krasikov is irrelevant for the argument here. If Pakistanis had caught a Seal Team member, and convicted him, would you say "well the guy is guilty, let him serve the time".
To avoid another straw man argument, let me repeat my argument - Kevin Drums double standards - Putin is "monstrous, murderous thug" yet Obama is perfectly fine guy, while both did the same thing - sent a military team to a foreign country to kill somebody who had committed a serious crime and who they (Obama, Putin) had no other way to bring to justice.
I DISPUTE what kk is saying about the open murder of Khangoshvili in Berlin and his past.
I can find no citation about this killing in the Nazran raid though in the battle 88 people apparently died and Khangoshvili. himself was shot.
Because I am in a hurry to go see some Shakespeare by the Sea, I am just going to call kk a liar. Tonight or tomorrow kk may provide adequate proof of his allegations....but for now, he is just a liar.
It's a lot harder to capture someone who very strongly prefers to die than be captured than you think it is.
You misspelled "Barack".
And the guy they killed in the night in Pakistan had been personally responsible for 3000+ deaths on American soil. I think everyone in the world understood that. Can you say that about any of the people Krasnikov killed?
Do I know the entire career of Krasnikov, and all the people he may have killed? No.
He killed the Chechen guy (Zelimkhan Khangoshvili) in Berlin. I do believe that this Khangoshvili guy has done some dirty things. I have read reporting that he executed Russian POWs. While that is not a 100% proof, I find it believable.
Chechen wars were brutal nasty affairs. On both sides. Not everybody did dirty things, but lots of dirty things were done - killing of women and children, bombing schools, metro stations, theaters, killing of POWs.
Then the war ended - not by some peace treaty, but instead it just kinda fizzled out - some Chechen rebels were killed, some came to terms (especially after Ahmed Kadyrov (father of Ramzan Kadyrov) switched sides and joined the Russian side, after which the writing was on the wall) - lay down arms and go back to civilian life, and we will let you live in peace.
This is how wars end, since times immemorial - we fight and kill, but then we make peace and we leave each other in peace. Not because it is the moral ethical thing to do, but because of pure rational self interest - who would ever make peace with you if you still keep going after the people on the other side. This deal applies as long as you fought clean; but if you fought dirty (e.g. killed POWs) then there is no deal, no peace. Basic human nature.
Lots of countries do assassinations on foreign soil (US, Israel, Russia, etc.), nobody picks the names to hit out of a phone book. And as a rule, people let bygones by bygones, as long as you fought clean. Russians did go after this guy Khangoshvili. If he fought clean, why would the Russians go through the trouble of going after him?
If you're dumb enough to be in Russia today... to heck with you. I'm not a fan of this WSJ reporter. He needs to apologize to all of us.
You have no idea about what you post.
So you want Americans and Europeans to visit Russia and risk arrest? The premise of this post by Mr. Drum is that people were kidnapped specifically to trade. Why would it be a good idea to put yourself at risk?
I thought your daddy Trump was the only one who could get him out of Russia?
I’m voting for Harris. And I’m deeply disappointed that the young man in Pennsylvania missed. So… whatever you think of me, it’s not because I’m a Republican or voting for trump.
“Fuck this troll” says all that needs saying to any post by Justin.
Yeah, Justin's blame-the-victim schtick here is very consistent with his generally ghoulish burn-the-world take on things. At least he's not doing his backstabbing "hey guys it's too hard to fight Trump so we should all not bother, at least the bad stuff he does will be funny" ennervating routine.
We need to Yamamoto Putin's plane the next time he leaves Russian airspace. Let the incensed plutocrats fight over the greasy pole.
How many guys do we currently have locked up at Guantano? Well over 20 years without a trial.
Bush's fault. He, and his coterie of idiot keystone cops, rounded up a bunch of people who mostly probably were awful terrorists but did so in a Manly We're At War--Don't Lecture Us About Evidence And Criminal Procedural Rules kinda way such that many of them could never be convicted.
As a result, the dumbasses in the Bush admin bequeathed to history a situation where we were holding people many of whom probably were bad people but you could never prove it in court. Forcing subsequent administrations into the realpolitik situation of either letting people go and being publicly damned for it or keeping people locked up and being mildly criticized for it by a handful of lefties who care about civil rights.
Trump has certainly overshadowed Bush II in terms of gross incompetence, but the shadow of Dubya's damage is nonetheless long.
Can't help the Russian economy if western companies are afraid to send anybody to Russia.
An aside, do you think Ukraine gave intel they developed or passed on info they received, to rebels in Mali, resulting in dozens of Wagner personnel killed?
Mother Jones called it a major win. For Biden. They got it half right anyway...
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/evan-gershkovich-released/
I wouldn't go to Russia these days on a bet either, but this is a variant of an old Russian/USSR gambit to get hard currency. After the war the USSR had big numbers of German POWs in prison camps and made the West Germans pay to get them released, which happened in dribs and drabs over a long time. In effect it was slow-motion ransom. Somewhat more justifiable considering how those POWs got inside Russia, but why quibble over minor details when the principle is what matters?
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Welcome to Vladimir Putin's Russia. Talks not going your way? Just keep kidnapping Germans until they see the light. What a monstrous, murderous thug.
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I agree, yes.
But change the participants to Hamas and kidnapping Israeli's. Now it's the exact same pattern but we're supposed to agree that there are justified reasons for the behavior, and it's all very complicated...
I'm honestly not sure what you are saying. But in the Israel-Palestine analogy, it is Israel that is kidnapping Palestinians by the thousands. Hamas committed their kidnapping crime 10 months ago, Israel continues everyday while pretending to negotiate.
You expect Israel to forget something that happened all of ten months ago, but you're OK with the Palestinians being bitter over what happened almost 80 years ago.
And you're happy to slide from behavior engaged in before war to war-time activities as though they are the same thing. I've seen enough here.
My point is we understand others by looking at the excuses we make for our side...
Or at least some of us have the potential to do that. For most of us, of course, it's 24/7 "what my side did is 100% justified and what *they* did is 0% justified".
It is more likely this is disingenuous than you are that stupid. Who knows? Either way it does not merit a rebuttal.
Which describes your attitude apparently. I called what Hamas did a crime and you offer Israel an excuse (it's a war ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )