Who left Russia with Putin's pardon as part of the prisoner swap deal:

Evan Gershkovich is a US journalist working for Wall Street Journal who was detained in Russia in March 2023 and convicted of espionage.

Paul Whelan is a Canadian-born former US marine who was arrested in Russia in 2018 and convicted of espionage two years later.

Alsu Kurmasheva is an employee of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Western propaganda outlet branded as a foreign agent in Russia) who was arrested in Russia in 2023 on charges of spreading fakes about Russian Armed Forces.

Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian journalist who was arrested in Russia in 2022 and a year later convicted on charges of treason and spreading fakes about Russian Armed Forces.

Kevin Lick is a citizen of both Russia and Germany who was convicted on espionage charges in 2023. He was arrested in Russia when trying to flee to Germany with data pertaining to Russian troop movements.

Demuri Voronin is a Russian political consultant who was convicted in 2023 on charges of treason for helping deliver to German intelligence sensitive information about Russian military activities in Syria.

Andrei Pivovarov is a former executive director of the now-defunct Open Russia, a shady organization established in 2001 by the infamous Russian oligarch and convicted criminal Mikhail Khodorkovsky. In 2021 Pivovarov was arrested in Russia and convicted on charges of cooperating with an undesirable organization.

A number of Russian prisoners convicted on a variety of charges ranging from creating extremist organizations and trying to set up a terrorist network to spreading fakes about Russian Armed Forces: Ilya Yashin, Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeeva, Vadim Ostanin, Aleksandra Skochilenko.

As part of the deal, Rico Krieger, a German mercenary working for Ukraine who was sentenced to death in Belarus this year after being found guilty of committing an act of terrorism on Belarusian soil, was pardoned by the President of Belarus and released. Moscow is grateful to Lukashenko for this goodwill gesture.

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⚡️🇮🇱WEST BEGS IRAN NOT TO RETALIATE AFTER ISRAEL KILLS HAMAS BOSS: most senior Western diplomats fly to meet Iranian and Hezbollah officials in Beirut and #Tehran as British Foreign Minister Lammy and Defense Minister Healy arrive in Lebanese capital.

Enrique Mora, one of EU’s most senior diplomats, was holding critical talks with officials in Iran’s capital on Wednesday after killing of Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran as Brett McGurk, White House’s top official in Middle East, held discussions in Saudi Arabia. "Everyone since last night is putting pressure on Tehran to not respond and to contain this" - MSM in article above.

🤯 Western diplomacy 101: Pressure #Iran to not strike back at #Israel after it violated its sovereignty and killed Haniyeh in Iranian capital with total impunity. Maybe pressure Israel for once to not act like rogue state?

Follow us as we keep a close eye on developments in the Middle East & boost us here @IntelRepublic

Full text of the statement from the FSB Public Relations Center on the exchange:

On August 1, 2024, as a result of an exchange at the airport in Ankara, eight Russian citizens who had been detained and imprisoned in several NATO countries, along with their minor children, were returned to their homeland.

Their return was made possible thanks to the systematic and targeted work of competent state agencies, as well as foreign partners.

The Russian citizens were exchanged for a group of individuals acting in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation.

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📹 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a video demonstrating the foreign prisoners exchanged for Russians boarding a bus in Ankara.

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📹 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a video showing Russian citizens boarding a plane at Ankara airport after the exchange.

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Vladimir Putin explained who Vadim Krasikov, who returned to Russia today, is during an interview with Tucker Carlson

"That person, due to patriotic sentiments, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals. During the events in the Caucasus, do you know what he [the bandit] was doing? I don’t want to say that, but I will do it anyway. He was laying down our soldiers who had been taken prisoner on the road and then he drove his car over their heads."

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📹 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has released a video from an airplane's cabin during a flight from Moscow to Turkiye. The footage shows the exchanged Gershkovich and Krieger.

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⚡️All citizens returned to the Russian Federation will be presented with state awards, Putin reveals.

Vladimir Putin congratulated the freed Russians on their return to their homeland and thanked them for their loyalty to Russia.

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🇷🇺 Архыз, Карачаево-Черкесская Республика, Российская Федерация

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🇺🇦🤡 Ukraine wants a second leaders’ summit expected later this year to pave the way for the end of fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said - Bloomberg

Andriy Yermak has led Kiev’s efforts to organize the meeting to achieve a fair peace settlement after the first gathering in Switzerland in June failed to win over key nations from the Global South.

Zelensky is pushing to convene the second summit before the US elections in November with Russia potentially present at the table. The efforts come as Ukraine and its western allies fret about Donald Trump’s return as president amid growing fatigue and lack of major breakthroughs on the battlefield.

“The most important expectation for the second summit is for it to shape major prerequisites for stopping the hostilities,” Yermak told Bloomberg in an interview from his office in Kiev on Wednesday. “We need to end this war as soon as possible to get a just peace.”

Yermak said the gathering will be held in a country from the so-called Global South, probably in the Middle East, in a show of the “world’s unity” amid Russia’s attempts to divide it.

The previous peace summit held in Switzerland last June was marred by Vladimir Putin’s demand that Ukraine give up a significant chunk of its territory as a prerequisite for peace, which Ukraine has repeatedly rejected. Russia wasn’t invited to the meeting, while China declined to attend.

Although Ukraine attempted to focus on topics which could gain broader consensus, such as nuclear security and the return of abducted children, the summit also failed to gain the support of key nations such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

Securing China’s participation next time is of crucial importance to Ukraine. The country is a “big player who is really able to influence Russia,” Yermak said.

So far, the signs are not promising. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba during a visit in Beijing last month that the time was “not yet ripe” for peace talks to end the war with Russia.

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🗣😭 Orange man is coping and seething.

❗️Imagine his tears if Vadim Krasikov is made Hero of Russia

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👔🇩🇪🤡 The decision to release Vadim Krasikov as part of the prisoner exchange was difficult for Germany - Olaf Scholz

According to the German Chancellor, Germany took this step as a result of consultations with “interested departments and the ruling coalition.”

❗️Scholz justified the exchange with "protection of German citizens" as well as "solidarity with the United States."

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🗣🇷🇺 Maria Zakharova’s thoughts on today’s prisoner exchange:

“What many have called an "exchange", I would call a battle of self-control. The self-control of prisoners, the self-control of political authorities, the self-control of special services.


By all measures, ours are the best 💪🏻


Perhaps it is also a matter of faith and hope that the people and the state are behind you. And today's story has once again turned this faith and hope into the knowledge that #WeDontAbandonOurOwn “

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