American Evan Gershkovich was the first journalist accused of espionage since the Cold War, and Russian President Vladimir Putin barely concealed what the purpose of these accusations, notes today the British "Guardian" on the occasion of last night's largest exchange of prisoners between the East and the West, carried out since the Cold War, writes BTA in the press review.
Gerskovich pleaded not guilty, but in the "Wall Street Journal" and the administration of President Biden in the US categorically deny the accusations, calling him a hostage and a pawn in a larger geopolitical game, the newspaper commented. For his part, Vladimir Putin barely concealed his real goal: to free a man named Vadim Krasikov, who until yesterday was serving a life sentence for the murder of a Chechen rebel commander in Berlin's Tiergarten park.
In his interview with American TV journalist Tucker Carlson earlier this year, Putin described Krasikov as "a man who liquidated a bandit in one of the European capitals, driven by patriotic feelings". But a little digging into his past suggests that Krasikov may have been an elite Federal Security Service assassin tasked with eliminating Putin's opponents abroad, the Guardian said. After the attack, he was caught at the crime scene as he was spotted by passers-by, the British newspaper recalls.
"Putin has the crazy idea to get Krasikov back; he really, really wants to get Krasikov back," he told the Guardian. earlier this year, a Russian official familiar with the Kremlin's discussions on the issue said. "He was a symbol of the fact that we do not abandon our people. He killed someone for us and we want such people to know that we will fight for them to get them back,'' the commentator added.
Krasikov was central to Putin's demands, and Gershkovich was the most important prisoner for the White House, the British newspaper noted. Hundreds of other people were drawn into the negotiations that followed for nearly a year, including Russian political prisoners and Russian spies held abroad, friends and relatives providing support, negotiators on both sides, a Russian billionaire believed to have acted as an intermediary in the swap, as well as jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died amid reports that the West had presented Putin with a grand deal to free Krasikov and Gershkovich in a three-way swap in February.
The German in. "Zeit" notes in a commentary titled "Putin's Principle: Freedom for a contract killer" that at the beginning of this week Russian Vadim Krasikov was still in prison in the city of Offenburg and was expected to remain there for many years to come. The verdict for the so-called killer of the park "Tiergarten" was a life sentence. But now that the big prisoner swap is over, Krasikov can look forward to a new life of freedom in Russia.
Freeing the murderer Krasikov was Vladimir Putin's big plan. But for the Russian opposition, the exchange also means the end of a lost battle, commented the German newspaper.
The German government said it was not an easy decision to release hitman Vadim Krasikov, who is a colonel in Russia's Federal Security Service, in exchange for German citizen Rico Krieger, sentenced to death in Belarus, and then pardoned by the country's president, Alexander Lukashenko, the British "Independent" reports.
The newspaper notes that Biden personally welcomed the released American prisoners who arrived by plane last night at the military base of the US Joint Command "Andrews" near Washington. In response to a question from "Independent" how he might end the cycle of Russia capturing and detaining Americans to force the return of Russians detained by the US and its allies, Biden urged Americans to "not go to certain places,", given the " what's at stake".
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that the Biden administration had "become clear" that Russia would not agree to release Whelan, Gershkovich or Kurmasheva without securing the release of Krasikov . He noted that both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had personally engaged through contacts with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to persuade him to allow Krasikov's release in exchange for the Americans held by Russia, plus other political prisoners. Sullivan also said that President Biden called his Slovenian counterpart to demand the release of the two Russian spies just an hour before he informed Americans that he would drop out of his re-election campaign, The Independent reported.< /p>
The French in. "Mond" commented that hailing the "achievement of diplomacy", Biden said that US allies - Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway and Turkey - "have stood by us".
"They took bold and courageous decisions" to release Russians detained for espionage and other crimes in exchange for Western citizens and Russian dissidents and human rights activists, Biden said, quoted by the newspaper.
"Some of these women and men have been unjustly detained for years. All of them have experienced unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. "Today their agony is over," the American president said. Biden described their sentences in Russia as "show trials", he adds in "Mond".
The French newspaper noted that at the same time, Dmitry Medvedev, a former president of Russia and a close ally of current Russian leader Vladimir Putin, celebrated the return of Russians who he said had "worked for the Fatherland".
According to the German in. "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" some of the freed Western citizens were probably arrested in the first place only to be used as bargaining chips in a grand deal with the West. Besides the correspondent of the "Wall Street Journal" Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan, among those released are Russian opposition politicians, journalists and human rights activists who are rarely reported abroad, as well as several Germans.
Another German newspaper - in "Welt" quotes the words of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke of a "moment of great joy". The newspaper notes that in the social platform "Ex" she welcomed "the release of innocent EU and US citizens, as well as sincere Russian democrats who were imprisoned in Russia".
"The Kremlin exchanged them for convicted criminals and murderers. This shows the glaring difference," emphasized Von der Leyen.
The release of those held in Russian custody is a moment of great joy for all those who fought for their freedom, concludes in "Welt".
As White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed last night, Navalny was also supposed to be part of the deal to release Gershkovich. Washington has offered his freedom as a supplement to persuade Germany to release Krasikov, notes the Guardian.
On the day of Navalny's death, Sullivan said he had spoken with Gershkovic's family and said he still saw a path to a deal. This, he said, came after the US approached its allies in Norway, Poland and Slovenia to hand over a number of Russian citizens detained abroad and sought the possibility of returning other US and German citizens, as well as prominent members of the Russian opposition.
According to the newspaper, it will never be clear whether Gershkovich was targeted for a specific report of his or simply because the Kremlin needed a hostage to continue prisoner exchange negotiations with the West following the numerous arrests of high-ranking Russian cadres and officers.
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The trial against Gershkovich, described by Washington as a farce, was held behind closed doors, and the Russian authorities did not make public any evidence to support their claims, notes the "Wall Street Journal".
The court hearings in Gershkovich's case, during which he was often photographed smiling, became front page news in newspapers in the US and Europe. During Major League Baseball games and major league soccer matches, his well-wishers raised slogans calling for his release, the American newspaper recalled.
Journalists and well-known news anchors from Tucker Carlson to CNN anchor Jake Tapper have spoken out in his defense, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The case made the 32-year-old Gershkovich the first American journalist to be officially accused of espionage on the territory of Russia since the Cold War, commented the "Washington Post". The closed-door trial with secret evidence began in June, and in mid-July he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, the newspaper recalled.
V. "Washington Post" notes that in June, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby reiterated: "Evan has never worked for the US government. Evan is not a spy. Journalism is not a crime".