USAnalysis

Prisoner swap enables Biden to jab at US isolationsists, but critics warn of ‘further blackmail’ by Russia

German politician says decision to release convicted murderer sets precedent that Russia can exploit

US President Joe Biden stands with sister of Irish citizen Paul Whelan - Elizabeth Whelan (left), family of Evan Gershkovich - father Mikhail Gershkovich (second right) and sister Danielle Gershkovich (right) - while speaking on the prisoner swap with Russia from the White House. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA
Derek Scally's picture
Derek Scally in Berlin
Thu Aug 01 2024 - 20:10

The art of Thursday’s prisoner swap deal was impressive. But the grounds for the original 24 imprisonments told their own tale.

While Moscow agreed to free imprisoned journalists, artists, human rights activists and even a secondary-school student, the citizens Russia welcomed back in return included a convicted murderer and a cyberfraud hacker.

Remarkable, too, was the level of secrecy that held until Thursday as the complicated swap of all prisoners at once was close to completion.

Though out of November’s US election, President Joe Biden’s praise for this “feat of diplomacy and friendship” was a clear political swipe at America-first, isolationist Trump supporters.

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“Anyone who questioned if allies matter, they do matter, today is a powerful example of why it is important to have friends in this world you can trust and depend on,” said Biden from the White House.

By name he thanked Germany, Poland, Norway and Slovenia as countries who “stepped up and stood with us” and,made “bold and brave decisions” to release prisoners who “were being justifiably held”.

Top of that list was Vadim Krasikov, released from prison in Germany, where he was serving a life sentence for what a Berlin court called the “state-contracted murder” of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.

In August 2019 Mr Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen descent living in Berlin, was shot from behind by a cyclist in broad daylight in the capital’s Tiergarten park. Krasikov, after firing multiple shots from a silencer-fitted revolver, threw his bike, gun and a wig into the nearby Spree river and fled – but was intercepted by Berlin police.

Russian president Vladimir Putin was most likely referring to Krasikov when he spoke of a “patriot” held in Germany for killing a “bandit” who had killed Russian soldiers.

In prison Krasikov reportedly boasted to guards that Russia would “not let me rot in jail” – confidence that paid off on Thursday.

A German government spokesman said on Thursday evening that Berlin “did not take lightly” the decision.

“The state’s interest in enforcing the prison sentence of a convicted criminal was offset by the freedom, physical wellbeing and – in some cases – also the lives of innocent people imprisoned in Russia and those unjustly imprisoned for political reasons,” added Steffen Hebestreit, spokesman for chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Not everyone in Germany celebrated the prisoner swap, with the opposition Christian Democratic Union warning that Berlin had made itself “open to further blackmail” by Russia.

“Russia is a terrorist state that is now deliberately trying to establish hostage diplomacy,” said Roderich Kiesewetter, CDU foreign policy spokesman. “I fear that the release of the convicted Tiergarten murderer will set a precedent that can be exploited politically by Russia in a major way.”

But even he acknowledged how, in the last months, Russia had piled pressure on Germany.

Last December Kevin Lik, a German-born Russian high school student, was sentenced to four years in a penal colony on state treason charges.Aged 19 at the time of his arrest, Lik was accused of photographing Russian troops and sending images to foreign states.

In February German man Patrick Schöbel was detained in St Petersburg and charged with drug smuggling after customs officers found in his luggage a packet of jellies reportedly containing cannabis.

In May, Russian authorities detained and charged with treason Herman Moyzhes, a German-Russian lawyer and cycling activist.

Finally in June another German citizen, Rico Krieger, was sentenced to death by a Belarus court for allegedly blowing up a railway track on orders from Ukraine.

He was pardoned on Tuesday by Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko, a close Kremlin ally.