❓Which Russian prisoners could be part of the Ankara exchange?

🟠Alexander Vinnik

A Russian IT specialist was arrested in Greece on July 25, 2017, at the request of the United States, where he is accused of violating US law by creating a cryptocurrency exchange without a US license. According to the US, billions of dollars were laundered through the exchange. If convicted, the Russian faces 55 years in prison.

Vinnik agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a plea deal with prosecutors on May 3, 2024. The court initially scheduled his sentencing for July 12, but later postponed it until early 2025.

🟠Maxim Marchenko

Arrested in September 2023. He pleaded guilty to illegally purchasing and shipping dual-use American microelectronics to Russia. The combined maximum sentence the Russian faces is 30 years in prison.

🟠Vadim Konoshchenko

Detained on October 27 while attempting to leave Estonia for Russia. On July 13, 2023, he was extradited to the US from Estonia. In the United States, the Russian is accused of conspiring to circumvent sanctions, illegal purchases for the Russian defense industry, and related financial fraud. Konoshchenko did not admit guilt in court; he remains under arrest.

🟠Vladislav Klyushin

Arrested in March 2021 in Switzerland at the request of the United States. He was extradited to the United States, and in February 2023, a jury found the Russian guilty. In September 2023, a court in Boston, US, sentenced Klyushin to nine years in prison. The founder of the M13 IT company was accused by the US authorities of insider trading in securities based on stolen and non-public information with the participation of several accomplices.

🟠Anna and Artem Dultsev

Arrested in Slovenia in December 2022, the court found them guilty of espionage. They were sentenced by the court to one year and seven months in prison and deportation from the country.

Vadim Krasikov

On December 15, 2019, the Berlin Supreme Court found Russian Vadim Sokolov (Krasikov) guilty of murdering Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

🟠Roman Seleznev

The son of a State Duma deputy from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, detained by US special service agents in July 2014 in the Maldives, was taken to the United States and, in April 2017, received 27 years on charges of cyber fraud, in particular, stealing credit card data and organizing online fraud, with damages of $170 million. In the second case, he pleaded guilty to being part of the international cyber fraud group Carder.

🟠Vladimir Dunaev

At the request of the United States, Russian citizen Vladimir Dunaev was detained in South Korea on May 25, 2021, in a cyber fraud case. On October 29, South Korea notified the Russian side of the detention and extradition of the Russian to the United States. In January 2024, a US court sentenced Dunaev to 5 years and 4 months in prison in a cyber fraud case. According to the American side, from November 2015 to August 2020, Dunaev was engaged in the theft of funds and confidential information and was also a member of a transnational criminal organization that developed the Trickbot malware.

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❗️Turkish intelligence said that the operation to exchange 26 prisoners from seven countries took place in Ankara with its mediation.

Ten of those released as part of the exchange are heading to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the United States, Turkish channel NTV reported.

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🗣🇺🇸🤡 The self-propelled Grandfather is pleased with himself for the release of Whelan, Gershkovich etc

❗️Best to also remember Biden also previously traded ‘The Merchant of Death’ Viktor Bout for someone no mark basketball player…

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🗣🇺🇸🤡 The self-propelled Grandfather brokered the prisoner exchange deal according to Sky News.

❗️Vadim Krasikov is Viktor Bout level in terms of value.

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🗣🇷🇺 Dmitry Medvedev shares his thoughts on todays prisoner exchange:

“Of course, I would like the traitors of Russia to rot in a dungeon or die in prison, as it often happened.

But it is more useful to get out your own people who worked for the country, for the Fatherland, for all of us.

And now let the traitors feverishly pick up new names and actively disguise themselves under the witness protection program.”

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❗️Joe Biden thanks US allies for facilitating the historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West

#Russia #US - Boost

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❗️‘Your lips to God’s ears’: Joe Biden on whether the prisoner exchange is a sign of US-Russia relations improving

#Russia #US - Boost

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🗣❌🗣 The self-propelled Grandfather acts like he got one over on Trump…

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‘The only answer is to destroy them’: How Russia plans to handle Ukraine's Western-supplied F-16 jets

Ukraine has finally received the first small batch of F-16 fighter jets promised by the West, with some of them allegedly already participating in air defense missions, if recent Western media reports are to be believed.

While F-16 jets are indeed designed to counter relatively slow-moving airborne targets like cruise missiles, the effectiveness of these planes against Russian air raids is questionable, says Russian military analyst Dmitry Drozdenko.

“Using fighters to attack Geran-class drones is pointless, if only because the missiles used against them are much more expensive than the drones themselves,” Drozdenko explains. He further notes that any Russian group airstrike would involve up to twenty cruise missiles and the F-16 jets donated to Ukraine are unlikely to be able to shoot all these missiles down.

“I think they will try to engage in air combat and attempt to attack our Su-34 [jets] that currently inflict serious damage upon Ukrainian fortifications thanks to glide bombs with the universal gliding and correction module,” Drozdenko says when asked how else Kiev may try to use these F-16s.

“As for our response, we have Su-30s and Su-35s, aircraft that are more advanced that these F-16s. And I know that our pilots are preparing to meet the enemy in our skies,” he notes.

According to Drozdenko, the range of Russian warplanes’ radar systems and the range of their air-to-air missiles exceed those of the radar and missiles used by F-16 so Russian have all the means to deal with the new threat.

“The only answer to this situation is to destroy this hardware, just like those Leopard and Abrams tanks,” he says.

Drozdenko also speculates that Kiev may opt to station F-16s in Poland or in Romania to keep them safe from Russian airstrikes. An F-16 would then fly to an airstrip to quickly rearm and refuel, fly a sortie from that Ukrainian airfield and then quickly flee back to an airbase in one of the two aforementioned NATO countries.

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⚡️Eight Russians detained and imprisoned in a number of NATO countries have been returned to their homeland, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Public Relations Center reported.

Their return was made possible thanks to the systematic work of competent government agencies and foreign partners, the department noted.

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❗️Russians who returned to their homeland were exchanged for a group of people who acted in the interests of foreign states to the detriment of the security of the Russian Federation, the FSB said.

As a result of the exchange, minors were also returned to Russia, the FSB said.

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⚡️Russia is fully satisfied with the prisoner exchange that took place, a reliable source in one of the competent Russian agencies said.

During the exchange, all parties involved fully complied with the agreements, the source added.

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❗️A group of people sentenced to long prison terms, including life sentences, have been returned to Russia, a source in the competent Russian agency said.

Those who returned to their homeland were accused of cooperating with Russian intelligence agencies, the source noted. In a number of cases, the guilt of those detained and convicted was not proven.

The returning Russians will undergo a full medical examination, the source emphasized.

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❗️Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees to pardon foreign citizens exchanged out of Russia, including Whelan and Gershkovich, the Kremlin said.

Moscow is grateful to the leadership of all countries that provided assistance in preparing the exchange, Kremlin added.

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❗️Artem and Anna Dultsev, Pavel Rubtsov, Vadim Konashchenko, Mikhail Mikushin, and Roman Seleznev, who were imprisoned in NATO countries, have returned to Russia, a source in one of the competent Russian agencies reported.

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Who is returning to Russia as part of the prisoner exchange with the US:

▪️Vadim Krasikov, a former Russian intelligence officer arrested in Germany in 2019 and accused by Berlin of terminating Chechen terrorist Zelimkhan Khangoshvili on German soil.

▪️Ludwig Gisch and Maria Mayer, arrested in 2022 in Slovenia and accused of being deep-cover Russian intelligence operatives whose names (if Western media is to be believed) are Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva.

▪️Roman Seleznev, a Russian IT specialist who was accused by US authorities of being a hacker and of defrauding banks of millions of dollars.

▪️ Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian businessman who was arrested in Switzerland in 2021 and extradited to the US. The American authorities accused Klyushin of participating in “an elaborate hack-to-trade scheme that netted approximately $93 million through securities trades based on confidential corporate information stolen from U.S. computer networks,” as the US DoJ put it.

▪️Vadim Konoshchenok, a Russian businessman who the US authorities claim has ties to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). In 2023 he was arrested in Estonia and extradited to the US to be tried on charges of smuggling dual-use technologies and ammunition from the United States to Russia.

▪️Mikhail Mikushin, a Russian national who was arrested in Norway while posing as a Brazilian academic called Jose Assis Gaammaria. Norwegian authorities suspected him of being a Russian intelligence operative but Mikushin only admitted to using a false identity to gain employment at the University of Tromso.

▪️Pavel Rubtsov, also known as Pablo Gonzalez Yague, is a Russian-Spanish journalist who was arrested in 2022 in Poland on suspicion of espionage.

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