As a part of the trade, Poland did launch Pavel Rubtsov — also referred to as Pablo Gonzales, a Spanish-Russian journalist. He had been arrested in February 2022 close to the border with Ukraine and was accused of being a Russian intelligence agent.
Mariusz Kamiński, the previous coordinator of particular providers below the previous PiS administration, wrote on X that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s authorities “gave away their most beneficial agent to the Russians with out getting something in return.”
Whether or not Poland obtained any direct quid professional quo is unclear; nevertheless, the U.S. is one in all Poland’s closest political and navy allies.
In Germany, human rights organizations and opposition politicians argued that releasing a convicted assassin in trade for political prisoners gives further leverage to the Russian regime.
“This might set a precedent,” Roderich Kiesewetter, a senior protection politician from the opposition celebration Christian Democratic Union, informed POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook. “I worry that the chance of sabotage or terrorism by Russia will improve,” he stated, including that Russian President Vladimir Putin had proven his henchmen haven’t any cause to worry penalties.
The German authorities didn’t commute Krasikov’s sentence. Somewhat, in a historic first, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann instructed the general public prosecutor to droop Krasikov’s sentence for deportation — that means he may very well be instantly arrested if he reentered Germany, a spokesperson from the justice ministry stated.
