"Pact with the devil" - Debate on the exchange of prisoners

2024-08-04 23:20:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"Pact with the devil" - Debate on the exchange of prisoners

Chancellor Scholz waiting for the plane with the exchanged prisoners. Photograph: Marvin Ibo Güngör/Bundesregierung/Getty Images

Chancellor Olaf Sholc was quite relieved when he received twelve of the freed people at Cologne/Bonn airport. Unlike in the USA, where US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hugged journalist Evan Gershkovic in front of the cameras, the reception in Germany took place quietly and cautiously.

Sholci said that the exchange of prisoners became possible only "through intensive cooperation with many European countries and especially with the United States of America" ??adding that he believes that in the end this was the right decision.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris hugged journalist Evan Gershkovic in front of the cameras. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/dpa/picture alliance

In fact, the exchange of prisoners was spectacular and a great diplomatic achievement between Western countries and Russia, regardless of any moral or ethical assessment.

Russia released 16 prisoners, including four with German passports. In exchange, eight Russians were released, including Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced to life in prison in Germany at the end of 2021 because, according to a Berlin court, he had killed a Georgian of Chechen origin in a park in the capital in August 2019. .

Has the rule of law fallen to its knees?

The debate in Germany revolves largely around the question of whether a country governed by the rule of law can free a convicted murderer. But unlike many debates on current political issues, this debate is characterized by prudence and moderation.

Three of the released prisoners Vladimir Kara-Mursa, Andrej Pivovarov and Ilja Jashin at a press conference at DW. Photo: Florian Görner/DW

CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen told Deutschlandfunk radio that Germany has accepted a "serious disadvantage": "But this is justified by the human benefit, by the freedom and saving 16 people from torture."

SPD foreign policy expert Michael Roth summed up the German dilemma clearly. He wrote on Platform X that sometimes you have to "make a deal with the devil for the sake of humanity." He was talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Not legal specifications

International civil justice contains rules for the exchange of prisoners of war, explained to DW Christian Mihr, deputy secretary general of Amnesty International in Germany. The exchanged persons were not prisoners of war and there are no specific legal provisions for this case.

Even in German legislation there are no rules for the exchange of prisoners. The German government and the Minister of Justice, Marco Buschmann, relied in this case on Article 456a of the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to which the execution of a prison sentence can be suspended under certain conditions.

President Putin welcomes released murderer Vladim Krasikov. Photo: Mikhail Voskresensky/ITAR-TASS/IMAGO

It is clear that the exchange of prisoners took place because Putin wanted first of all to release the murderer Krasikov, who was imprisoned in Berlin. And US President Joe Biden was persistently demanding Gershkovic's release.

Strategy from the time of the Cold War

Does the successful prisoner exchange mean that new diplomatic lines of communication have now been established with the Kremlin that could possibly help end the war in Ukraine?

Russian President Putin welcomes the released prisoners. Photo: Mikhail Voskresensky/ITAR-TASS/IMAGO

Political scientist David Sirakov, director of the Atlantic Academy in Rhineland-Palatinate, disagrees. He told the German Press Agency that "this is neither a confidence-building measure nor does it raise hopes for a better relationship with Moscow or Minsk."

On the contrary, it shows that the familiar Cold War strategy of releasing their nationals, who often work in the security and secret service sectors, exerting pressure by imprisoning foreign nationals in Russia and Belarus, continues to be part of the diplomatic repertoire of these states./ DW