'Putin's Playbook' author: Prisoner swap would incentivize Russia to trade for higher value targets
The former intelligence officer says a prisoner swap for Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan would endanger American lives
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Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Rebeka Koffler spoke out on a potential prisoner swap between the United States and Russia, saying it would ‘endanger’ the lives of Americans.
REBEKA KOFFLER: Yes, we all feel compassion for Brittney Griner and for Paul Whelan, but here is the deal: By releasing this convicted criminal and a very dangerous one who conspired to kill Americans, the Biden administration would be endangering so many more people, many Americans, because this is Putin’s playbook, and it works every time. They will grab more people, and hope to trade them for high value assets. He's a very dear military intelligence officer, Putin wants him back, and he should be kept in a U.S. prison.
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Right now it’s very difficult to predict, Sandra. And this is because despite the fact that we have all these reports in western media that President Biden approved this deal himself, what the Russians are saying is not so fast. Today, Putin’s spokesperson said that we are not aware of any deal being finalized and Lavrov repeated, the foreign minister repeated the same thing. Remember, the Russians know that this is a hot button for us, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
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They are also smelling blood knowing that President Biden is under tremendous pressure to bring these Americans home because President Biden’s popularity has been going down very, very rapidly, and we are having domestic issues here due to his incompetent economic and foreign policies, so they are going to drag their feet.
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