Former US President Donald Trump admitted that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made a "great deal" on the prisoner swap with the West.
"By the way, I’d like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal," Trump said at a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia.
At the same time, he expressed dissatisfaction with the circumstances of the prisoner swap and said that the deal contained "horrible" mistakes on the part of the current US administration.
Earlier, Trump criticized the administration of US President Joe Biden for concluding the deal and asked questions about its content and the likelihood of cash payments to Russia.
On Thursday, Russia's Federal Security Service confirmed that eight Russians detained and held in custody in a number of NATO countries had returned home. A plane carrying them arrived at Moscow's Vnukovo-2 airport from Ankara late on Thursday, where they were greeted by Putin. Russia, in turn, has released 16 people, including seven Russians and five German citizens.
A Russian intelligence source said on Thursday that the list of Russians who were returning home included Artem Dultsev, Anna Dultseva, Pavel Rubtsov, Vadim Konoshchenok, Mikhail Mikushin, Roman Seleznev, Vladislav Klyushin, and several minor children. Russian citizen Vadim Sokolov, also known as Krasikov, who was serving a life sentence in Germany, also returned to Russia, the source said.
A Sputnik correspondent later reported that a plane carrying former US Marine Paul Whelan, The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva had landed in Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, late Thursday night.