'Today was a good day': White House adviser chokes up after prisoner exchange - video

[erronis]

Source: The Guardian

The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, showed emotion as he described the collective effort behind the release of American citizens detained in Russia. The US journalist Evan Gershkovich and the ex-marine Paul Whelan were released by Russia as part of the biggest prisoner exchange between the two countries since the the cold war. Several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners were also freed

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2024/aug/01/us-national-security-adviser-jake-sullivan-prisoner-exchange-video

---

What a wonderful tribute to the real people who make our government work.

F the maga/trumpist "deep state" shills.

[mysteryowl]

1. Good work!

Thank you for pointing out what it takes to make this happen.

America thanks you!

[Warpy]

2. Why this is a HUGE DEAL

Russia released 15 political prisioners, Europe and the US released 10. Two of the prisoners Russia released were Americans. The other 14 were all opposition leaders who had opposed Putin and his war. The 10 released by the west were all convicted of espionage and one of them had also been convicted of murder. Putin is welcome to them.

People in Russia had exptected all 14 of those opposition leaders to get the Navalny treatment, so expats especially are jubilant that they have been released and are out of Russia.

Konstantin over at INside Russia has said this is the irst movement toward ening the war that he's seen, that it's obvious China told Putin to pound sand when he went there with his hat in his hand after his "reelection," and that has cost him a lot of support among the movers and shakers who put him into power. He had wanted two things from them: an ability to launder Russian money and military aid. He got neither.

I know China told him to FOAD but agreed to some window dressing in the form of joint military exercises. I don't know how much of his support is eroding. I don't know if it was enough to pull the rug out ofrom under him, but I hope so.

Ordinary Russians are getting pissed pff. grocery shelves are bare for the first time since 1991 or so. The irony there is that theyre is still plenty of food, there's just a big bottleneck at the warehouses. They can't find transport or workers thanks to Putin's war.