There’s some very good news out of Russia this morning, as three U.S. citizens who have been wrongly imprisoned by Vladimir Putin’s government —Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva — are reportedly on the verge of being released.
Oddly, the Journal, which has been fierce in keeping the spotlight on Gershkovich, does not yet have the report. But according to BBC News, the three are part of a larger swap involving “at least 24 prisoners,” including eight Russians who will be returned to Moscow.
Update: Here is the Journal’s coverage.
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Does this mean Putin has given up on Trump?
I agree more with you and not as much with Dan. Putin certainly wouldn’t get a better deal with Harris, so he is grabbing this deal now.
I can’t imagine. Trump still has a decent chance of winning, God help us.
As dick_nixon said on twitter: “Russia doesn’t give away diplomatic prizes for free.” There’s a reason why they’re doing this, and why they’re doing it now. I can think of several, but none really feel right to me.
Of course, the reason may or may not make sense to American minds, of course, even if sure as hell they’ll make sense in Putin’s head. And don’t forget, Russia may be doing this gesture this week in anticipation of “building goodwill” to blunt something awful they’ll do next week, too. Hell if we know. More importantly, hell if the State Department knows, either.
https://x.com/dick_nixon/status/1818991047944311040
Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that, too. One possibility: Trump couldn’t care less about the hostages, and so he wouldn’t have traded them for the Russian spies. I’m sure there will be some trolls on the right who are howling about it, but that’s the price any president would have to pay.