Russia demanded that a spy held in Germany be freed in exchange for Paul Whelan
amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/12/09/politics/russia-pa...
amp.cnn.comPosted Dec 10, 2022, 8:08 AM UTC
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amp.cnn.comGood reminder for Germans not to set foot in Russia unless they want to become a potential bargaining chip for a notorious FSB assassin currently serving a murder sentence for the “Tiergarten murder“.
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Some Germans are quite often in Russia… (Schröder)
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Two already open bottles of beer is the max we could offer for him
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Get me a bottle of beer - otherwise I'll go on strike here and stop writing. (yes, he was already chancellor at this time).
But they were late and delivered a bit too much beer to the next chancellor…
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Still can't believe Biden traded an arms dealer for a basketball player...
Kind of sets a bad precedent
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Honestly, Russia could have arrested anyone and put some trumped-up charges on them. Who that person is actually just doesn't matter. They prob just picked the most famous person they can get their hand on and ran with it. In terms of the precedent part, I agree, but at the same time, it is understandable that the US cares about its citizens.
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Its sets a precedent that hostile powers can kidnap American citizens, and use to blackmail the US for favorable deals.
Its been the US achilles heel for a long time, at least since Reagan.
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The hell we will do and release a murderer who killed someone in the middle of our capital.
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Well, the US released someone who indirectly killed many more people which I also wouldn’t have guessed.
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The US released "market competition"
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Is that even legally possible?
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Thank god we didn't give in to American pressure this time and let this guy go.
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You know it’s ridiculous when the Americans say it won’t even be considered, because we have zero control over it?
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According to the article, the US asked if that swap might work earlier in the summer, y’all said no, and that was the end of it. I’d be quite concerned for your agency and willpower if that even counted as pressure, much less if you actually gave in!
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Though it would be a nice gesture to the US to agree to the exchange.
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(CNN)Russia refused to release Paul Whelan alongside Brittney Griner unless a former colonel from Russia's domestic spy organization currently in German custody was also released as part of any prisoner swap, US officials told CNN, even as the US offered up the names of several other Russian prisoners in US custody that they would be willing to trade.
The US was unable to deliver on the request for the ex-colonel, Vadim Krasikov, because he is serving out a life sentence for murder in Germany.
CNN first reported exclusively in August that the Russians had requested that Krasikov be released along with Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who was serving a 25-year sentence in the US, in exchange for Whelan and Griner.
US officials made quiet inquiries to the Germans about whether they might be willing to include Krasikov in the trade, a senior German government source told CNN earlier this year. But ultimately, the US was not able to secure Krasikov's release. The German government was not willing to seriously consider including Krasikov --who assassinated a Georgian citizen in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019 -- in a potential trade, the German source said.
The US made several other offers to the Russians, sources said, to try to get them to agree to include Whelan in the swap. Among the names floated by the US was Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national extradited to the US in August on allegations of money laundering, hacking and extortion. The US also offered to trade Roman Seleznev, a convicted Russian cyber-criminal currently serving a 14-year sentence in the US, sources said.
A lawyer for Seleznev did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Frédéric Bélot, a lawyer who represented Vinnik in France before his extradition to the US, told CNN on Friday that he was not aware of any current discussions between Moscow and Washington over including Vinnik in a potential prisoner swap.
But Bélot said he could see Vinnik being part of prisoner swap negotiations in the future.
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"They [Vinnik and Whelan] make part of the possible 'candidates' for the next swap," Bélot said in a text message to CNN.
Since Vinnik's extradition to the US in August, Bélot has appealed directly to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to help secure Vinnik's release from US custody.
But ultimately, the Russians indicated they would only be willing to trade someone they considered to be a spy -- Whelan, who was convicted on espionage charges in 2019 -- for one of Russia's own spies: Krasikov.
The National Security Council declined to comment. A senior Biden administration official acknowledged to CNN on Thursday night that the Russian side had repeatedly demanded someone not even in US custody, even as the US made a number of different proposals. In the end, the Russians kept asking for the same thing that the US could simply not deliver on, the official said
"We have shown an openness to talk about that which is actually available to us and gotten only in response a demand for something not available to us," the official said, reiterating that the Russians refused what had been offered to secure the release of Whelan.
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this is just an attempt to stir conflict between us and germany
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LMAO! Oh my god Russia, now you are trying hard to become even more of a laughing stock, eh?
Russia demands Russian citizen held in a GERMAN prison for a crime to be exchanged by GERMANY for an AMERICAN citizen held in Russia...
What next? You demand a Peruvian pan flute player concert in Moscow in exchange for 100 tonnes of grain to be shipped to Africa?
What a fucking idiotic country...
That is what I am saying since the beginning of the war. There is a reason why Russia only wanted to talk to the US. They genuinely think the US is running the whole show from behind and everyone else is just puppets, the same way Belarus is a puppet to him. Putin thinks Biden can just meet him in Moscow, draw a line on the map and say "alright, all of this is now yours, have a nice dayy," Berlin conference style. It is so easy, and all this would be over, why wouldn't the Americans just do it blyat.
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I don’t think this is true, imo what he wants is for the US to pressure Germany and make the Germans feel like that is the case. Doing so would drive a wedge right down the middle of NATO. He’s banking on the US being overzealous and the Germans being weak.
The timing doesn’t make much sense though. He would’ve been far better off to do this last month during US congressional elections in order to maximize the division he could sew. Thankfully it appears Putin isn’t as smart as he thinks.
Different conceptualizations of how global politics works: Americans play Poker, Russians play Chess.
Poker is a continuous, everlasting game with several other players competing, each with their own individual interests & different influence levels based on stack size (ressources & assets) and position relative to the Dealer / Big Blind (geostrategic positioning), which may join in or bust out at any time in the game.
Chess is 2-player 1v1 game with a definite win condition both players aim for, where you face every opponent in a separate match. Rooks & Pawns don't have free will, they move wherever the king / player tells them to.
The severe limitations of this narrow-minded worldview have severly hamstrung Russian global politics all the way since the Soviet days, and continue to do so to this day.
To Russia, Germany is nothing more than a US Knight or Rook that Russia slowly but systematically tried to gian influence over to either take out of the game or even convert to their own side. But they do no consider any country in the West to be something more than a figure under control of the opposing player US.
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This is exactly what the Russians believe. Unfortunately I can’t name a reason why they are wrong
I mean, if it were about family (another EU nation) than it would make sense. But the US is only a friend, not family.
But it’s close to Christmas, so I could see that we could be nice to friends and help them.
“Family”
Lmao. I laughed.
It’s completely illegal to extradite a german citizen - with the exception to other EU nations.
And the current German government has officially agreed to work forwards to a European Republic.
Many Germans have replaced their national patriotism with EU patriotism.
Yeah maybe that’s the case for Germans but they’re the minority here.
He’s testing German resolve to see if it’s as weak as the Americans. He’s thinking if the US was willing to give up “the most dangerous man on the planet” according to the Obama/Biden administration, for a WNBA player that brought in an illegal drug. What would Germany do when pressured? Looks like he’s betting that the US will either pressure Germany, or Germany will cave to curry favour with the U.S.
It’s why Biden’s failure to secure the release of all of them is such a disaster. Now Russia can shop around to see who caves next. On top of the obvious lives that will now be lost in Ukraine because this maniac will undoubtedly help Russian troops secure more weapons.
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For them it's a hostage exchange. If you want a German guy I'm sure they'll find one for you.