Vinnik on Whelan: human rights activist Melnikov suggested who Russia and the United States could exchange

After the December exchange of the Olympic champion Britney Griner for the Russian Viktor Bout, on the sidelines they started talking that “they could repeat it.” “Russia and the United States will continue negotiations on the exchange of prisoners, in general, this issue is an extremely delicate topic that should not be made public,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA Novosti.

Who will want to return this time? Information has spread in Telegram channels that the Americans may ask for Alexei Navalny. However, our experts say that this is categorically impossible.

The Deputy Foreign Minister argues that there are hardly realistic options for an “all for all” exchange. This will not work, and purely arithmetically, since several thousand Russians are kept in American prisons.

We do not have a few dozen convicted citizens of the United States. And of the really significant people for Washington, perhaps Paul Whelan, convicted in 2020 for espionage. By the way, America would like to get it for a long time. That’s just in response to whom?

“I believe that exchanges should continue without fail,” comments Ivan Melnikov, vice president of the Russian division of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, who was actively involved in the exchange of Greiner for Bout. – Indeed, several thousand of our compatriots are serving sentences in the United States now. And although most of them have long lived in the United States, they still need help and support in places of deprivation, including consular support. If we talk about those Russian citizens who can be included in a potential exchange fund, then these are, first of all, our people extradited to America from third countries and accused of criminal acts, most often related to cybercrime.

– Can you name names?

– Offhand, Alexander Vinnik, the founder of a large cryptocurrency exchange, who was accused of conducting illegal financial transactions, comes to mind. He was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the US. He served five years. He was transported to France, then again sent to Greece. The ECHR banned the extradition of the Russian. But at the airport in Athens last year, he was stolen and sent on a private plane to the United States. The family claims that in fact he was kidnapped. From everything experienced, Vinnik’s wife died, two children remained in Russia, who are now being raised by relatives. All life is broken. Now he is waiting for the verdict of the court, according to which he faces up to fifty years in prison.

– But this is twice as much as Viktor Bout, who was called the “arms baron”! True, Bout’s sentence was based not on the act, but only on the intention to sell weapons.

– Of course, in the situation with Alexander Vinnik, we must assist in every possible way in his possible exchange. This also applies to Dmitry Ukrainskiy, who was extradited from Thailand and is accused of cyber fraud; Roman Seleznev, the son of a State Duma deputy, sentenced to 27 years for hacking; 35-year-old Anton Bogdanov, who was given 5 years for hacking into computer systems. In the last year, a similar method of extraditing Russians from third countries, where they can fly on vacation, and sending them to America has become more active. It seems to me that there was clearly an attempt to exert additional pressure on Russia when deciding on the latest high-profile exchange of Greiner for Bout.

– Do we still have Americans in places of deprivation of liberty who could be of interest to the US authorities?

– The same Paul Whelan convicted of espionage is in first place among the applicants for the exchange. In autumn, Robert Gilman was tried in Voronezh, he was sentenced to 4.5 years for assaulting a policeman. In January 2022, he made a drunken brawl in the carriage of the Sukhum – Moscow train. Ex-diplomat Mark Vogel, a former employee of the American embassy, ​​was sentenced last year to 14 years for drug smuggling. I see that the US is ready to show some interest in the fate of its citizens who are serving their sentences in Russia. But, of course, not everyone is the same.

– They say that they may ask to include Alexei Navalny in the exchange fund.

– I’m not even ready to speak hypothetically on this topic, since I don’t see any grounds for an exchange here. I doubt this can happen. Navalny is a citizen of Russia. For whom can it be exchanged? Only to another citizen of Russia. What is the benefit to the US? And how can this be justified legally? In any case, there were no such precedents before. Although, if you remember, in 1976 there was an exchange of a citizen of the USSR, political prisoner Vladimir Bukovsky, who was taken to the West, and in return, the Chilean communist Luis Corvalan came to the Soviet Union, we led the international campaign to rescue him from the dungeons of Pinochet. But this is the only such case.

– How to evaluate how much to change? “All for all” is hardly possible?

– I think it all depends on a gesture of goodwill on the part of the United States, given the large number of Russian citizens serving their sentences. Perhaps they will give more Russian citizens for their own. The same Whelan is clearly drawn to more than one person in return.

– Why should Americans show a gesture of goodwill? Relationships are worse than ever.

– Anything can happen. For example, just the other day, Russia handed over to the Polish authorities Taylor Dudley, a US Navy veteran who was detained in Kaliningrad last April. He came to a music festival in Poland, and it is still not very clear why he crossed our border and what he was going to do in Russia. According to media reports, the US government did not seek publicity for the incident at the request of the family, who wished to resolve this situation in private. The US State Department, the US embassies in Moscow and Warsaw took part in the talks. This was not an exchange, since Russia received no one in return. An exceptional gesture of goodwill. I think that such cooperation can be productive in the future.