Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Chris Eddy told Newsmax on Thursday that the prisoner swap between Russia and the U.S. "is definitely tied into the longer-term negotiations with the Ukrainian-Russian conflict."
Earlier in the day, Russian American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was freed in a Russian prisoner exchange for German-Russian citizen Arthur Petrov. Karelina was charged with treason for contributing $52 to a charity aiding Ukraine. Eddy said that "it's not the first time Russia has arrested people on trumped-up charges."
"It's been going on for dozens of years to try to obtain release of their own convicted, legally convicted prisoners in U.S. or allied jails," Eddy said during an appearance on "American Agenda."
Fred Fleitz, a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute, joined the conversation and said while the release of Karelina is good news, "the negotiations with Ukraine are going very badly."
"If we can get Putin to understand that this is his only opportunity to improve relations and to normalize relations with the rest of the world, we may be able to get a peace agreement, and this prisoner deal may be a sign of that," Fleitz added.
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James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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