On August 1, 2024, the Biden administration on Thursday announced it had secured the release of three American citizens from Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Russian-American radio journalistAlsu Kurmasheva. The swap took months to negotiate and involved multiple countries – United Statess, Russia, Germany, Belarus, and others.
There were a total of 24 prisoners swapped, some of which were Russian nationals returned to Russia – 3 in the US, 2 in Slovenia, 1 in Poland, and 1 in Norway. By far, the biggest fish Russia wanted back was Vadim Krasikov, a convicted murderer held in Germany.
While the country hailed the Biden-Harris administration for this swap, Donald Trump naturally denigrated the swap insisting the US paid for the release of the Americans. He has criticized the deal as being bad for the US, while congratulating Vladimir Putin for his part in getting so much. Once again it highlights his admiration for authoritarian dictators over his own country.
The Trump administration (2017-2020) made a few swap deals of its own. Let’s see how good a negotiator Trump really is:
- In November 2019, the Trump administration secured the release of American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, who were being held by the Taliban, in exchange for the release of three senior Taliban leaders being held in jails in Afghanistan. (2 for 3)
- In December 2019, the U.S. did a prisoner exchange with Iran, freeing Xiyue Wang, a graduate student at Princeton University who was serving a 10-year sentence in Iran on espionage charges. To secure Wang’s release, the U.S. freed Masoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist convicted of export violations. (1 for 1)
- In July 2020, the Trump administration secured the release of Michael White, a Marine veteran jailed in Iran on charges of insulting the country’s supreme leader, in exchange for the release of a dermatologist convicted on export violations. (1 for 1)
- In October 2020, a deputy assistant to Trump helped broker a deal to free two Americans being held hostage by Iranian-backed militants in Yemen in exchange for the release of about 250 Houthi rebels being held in Oman. (1 for 250)
Let’s not forget the really BIG ONE – the release of 5,000 Taliban! Yes, 5,000! Trump negotiated directly with the Taliban, leaving the Afghanistan government out of the deal.
“A Feb. 29, 2020, agreement between the United States and the Taliban said that the U.S. and its allies would withdraw their military forces within 14 months of the agreement’s announcement. The deal said that the Taliban would not allow groups, including al-Qaida, in Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies. It also called for negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, starting March 10, 2020.
According to the agreement, up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and up to 1,000 prisoners “of the other side” would be released by a specified timeline. “The United States commits to completing this goal,” the deal said, adding that the Taliban also committed to keeping its released prisoners from posing a threat to the security of the United States and its allies.” (1 for 5) https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/aug/31/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-accurately-says-trump-administration-w/
In my opinion, that disproves Trump’s claim that he never “paid” for the release of American hostages/prisoners.
Biden didn’t secure the release of all Americans being held in Russia. But he has worked tirelessly to secure as many as possible. All of this while he fought COVID (again), ran a presidential campaign, and battled members of his own party calling for him to bow out of the up-coming election! I’d say that was pretty remarkable! It was a tremendous feat to put together the alliances to pull this off. I doubt very much Trump could have accomplished this, no matter what he says. Our allies would not have worked with Trump the way they have with Biden. That’s a fact!
We all owe President Biden our thanks for working so hard to return these prisoners to their families!
IMHO . . .
In My Humble Opinion 