Analysis of Prisoner Exchange and Its Effects
The prisoner swap will have a wide-ranging impact, especially on the dynamics of the upcoming US presidential election, said Sergey Markov, director of the Institute for Political Studies and former advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin. “This is a significant trade that has been in the works for probably over a year.”He noted that the exchange mainly took place between Russia and the United States.
Markov stated that there were “agents” among those involved in the prisoner exchange and described some of these individuals as “political figures”, especially in Russia. In this context, “At first, the Americans were reluctant to accept their political agents, calling them ‘political prisoners’; but eventually they were forced to admit the truth.”He used the expressions.
Emphasizing that other countries are also involved in this exchange, Markov pointed out that German citizen Rico Krieger was recently sentenced to death in Belarus, Russian citizen Vadim Sokolov-Krasikov was sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany, and two Russian citizens were sentenced to two years in prison for espionage in Slovenia. Markov noted that these individuals differed between the parties “in terms of value,” and that each country tended to downplay the value of the prisoner it wanted to free.
Markov also noted that the timing of the prisoner swap coincides with the US presidential elections. In this context, he assessed that a successful prisoner swap has the potential to increase the votes of US Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to be the official candidate of the Democratic Party. Markov, “The reason behind this change is connected to the US elections where Kamala Harris needs to create a positive image. So, she was instructed to make concessions.”He commented as follows.
From Russia’s perspective, the prisoner swap highlights the dangers of aligning itself with people seen as “American agents,” Markov said. “Russia’s main advantage is restoring freedom to its citizens.”He used the expression.
