EU’s Complex Prisoner Swap Sparks Debate, Hungary Criticised Over Visa Scheme, and Ukraine’s War Efforts

Upcoming on Visegrad Insight:

• Valeriia Novak discusses the consequences of Hungary’s EUCO presidency and how Ukraine should try to maintain its progress regardless.
• Oleksandr Kostryba analyses how Ukraine could be integrated into the EU’s logistical systems and the benefits for both sides.

Biden thanks Germany, Poland and Slovenia for help in international prisoner exchange

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• The EU hailed one of the biggest and most complex prisoner swaps since the Cold War last week, which saw the release of 16 Americans, Germans and Russian dissidents – such as journalists Evan Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza – in exchange for eight Russians imprisoned in five different countries.
• President Biden thanked EU members Germany, Poland and Slovenia, acknowledging that they  ‘stood with us throughout tough, complex negotiations to achieve this outcome.’
• However, some commentators have warned that the exchange could send a dangerous message, as noted by Alexander Baunov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center: ‘[Russians] shouldn’t be afraid to commit crimes in the name of the regime, [because] the motherland will bail them out’.
• The main prize for Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Kremlin-connected colonel sentenced to life in prison in Germany for murdering a Chechen dissident in a public Berlin park in 2019.
• The deal sparked criticism in Poland, with the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party  condemning the ruling coalition for not including Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish journalist imprisoned in Belarus, in the exchange.

• Far-right forces have sought to amplify and weaponise gender controversies following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to allow Algerian fighter Imane Khelif and Taipei fighter Lin Yu-ting to compete at the Paris games. Both athletes have been competing in the women’s category of international boxing competitions for years, including the 2020 Tokyo games. However, both were disqualified from last year’s world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.
• The Hungarian Boxing Association protested Khelif’s participation in a quarter-final bout with Anna Luca Hámori, with Balázs Orbán commenting on X: ‘An outrageous match awaits a Hungarian fighter on Saturday afternoon…Hungary’s Luca Hámori is set to box against Imane Khelif, a biological male.’
• A crucial detail is that the IBA is led by Russian Umar Kremlev, an associate of Vladimir Putin who moved much of the IBA’s operations to Russia after he took over in late 2020 – a connection that led to the IBA’s permanent ban from the Olympics.

• On a lighter note, CEE countries have won a total of 58 medals at the Paris Olympics so far (including 14 golds!), with break down: