Vice President Kamala Harris and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Munich on February 17, 2024
Thursday’s prisoner swap with Russia was the largest since the fall of the Soviet Union and required years of work behind the scenes involving a variety of world leaders.
That included Vice President Kamala Harris, who conducted a pair of low-profile meetings at the Munich Security Conference in February with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob. Germany was holding Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov and Slovenia had two other Russian prisoners that Russia wanted as part of any deal.
When President Joe Biden needed someone to conduct these critical, secretive, high-level negotiations, he knew he could count on Harris to get it done.
The deal that led to the release of multiple political prisoners being held by Russia was enormously complex. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, corporate security executive Paul Whelan, and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Vladimir Kara-Murza were all released along with 11 Russian dissidents, including supporters of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Harris' involvement in the swap shows that she's already an experienced and trusted figure in dealing with America's allies. In fact, her encounter with Golob marked the highest-level meeting between America and Slovenia in history.
Rebuilding alliances, strengthening and expanding NATO, and restoring international faith in the United States as a reliable ally and thoughtful partner are some of Biden’s most critical accomplishments during his term in office. While he was president, Donald Trump went out of his way to weaken NATO, diminish American leadership, and weaken support for the United States around the world. Biden reversed that damage.
NATO is now stronger and larger than ever, with the recent addition of both Finland and Sweden to the alliance of countries. That renewed sense of unity and purpose has helped NATO allies provide vital supplies and assistance to Ukraine in its fight against an illegal, unprovoked invasion by Russia.
Harris is uniquely positioned to build on what Biden accomplished. She’s already a familiar and trusted presence among America’s allies, and she and all of her potential running mates are strong supporters of Ukraine.
Donald Trump had attempted to free Whelan, a Trump supporter, after his 2018 arrest in Russia. But in 2022, Trump claimed he had turned down a deal to free Whelan while criticizing Biden’s deal to free WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Trump claimed that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin would only release Gershkovich if Trump was elected to a second term. To no one’s surprise, that turned out to be a lie.
Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.
