WASHINGTON, August 8. /TASS/. The latest prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States should not be considered an ordinary deal, for in all likelihood it may herald the first step towards an end to the Ukrainian conflict, a former Latvian diplomat and international politics expert, Eldar Mamedov, said in a column for the US portal Responsible Statecraft.
He recalls that in the history of the United States "prisoner exchanges often served as a prelude to negotiations on key areas of conflict." In 1962, the first-ever such exchange between the US and the USSR augured a policy of detente and more recently, US prisoner swaps with another accomplished practitioner of hostage diplomacy, Iran, led to de-escalation in the nuclear stand-off between the two countries, Mamedov writes. In this regard, the expert believes that the exchange was more than a regular deal. He describes it as "the first step in a more delicate dance toward diplomacy in Ukraine" between Russia and the West to overcome the Ukrainian conflict.
According to Mamedov, any immediate diplomatic breakthroughs on Ukraine look unlikely, though. At the same time, according to the expert, there are reasons to believe that "subtle shifts may point in that direction." In particular, he refers to a recent poll by the Kiev International Institute for Sociology showing that a majority of Ukrainians now favor talks with Russia. Another reason for such expectations, according to the expert, was Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s remark that he was ready for talks with Russia at future summits to resolve the Ukrainian crisis.
On August 1, as a result of an exchange at Ankara airport, eight Russian citizens detained and imprisoned in a number of NATO countries, as well as minor children, returned home.
Russian President Vladimir Putin personally met the Russians released as a result of the exchange, who arrived at Vnukovo-2 airport on board a special flight unit. Among those who came back to Russia were Russian citizen known as Vadim Krasikov, who had been serving a life sentence in Germany. The Russians were exchanged for a group of persons acting in the interests of foreign states.