Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

Russia and the West exchanged 24 prisoners on Thursday in the largest such swap since the Old Cold War. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and CNN published detailed reports about the diplomacy that led up to this deal, which included the WSJ's Evan Gershkovich and Russia's Vadim Krasikov as the highest-profile exchanges. The New York Times also shared brief bios about the others who were swapped.

Here are the top five takeaways from this historic deal that most observers might have missed:

1. Germany Was Responsible For Holding Everything Up

Russia conveyed that it won't agree to any swap without the release of Vadim Krasikov, who was jailed in Germany for assassinating a Chechen terrorist that President Putin told Tucker Carlson had driven his car over the heads of Russian prisoners, among his other crimes. Germany balked for a while though due to the "morality" of releasing a convicted killer that's serving a life sentence, but the US convinced it to go along with this, especially since Russia and Belarus agreed to release jailed Germans as part of the deal.

2. Poland, Slovenia, and Norway Chipped In But Got Nothing In Return

A total of four Russians who were imprisoned in the aforementioned countries were also released even though their governments didn't get anything in return. This suggests a concession on the West's part, albeit one that enabled Russia to make its own such concession that'll be touched upon in the next point for turning this deal into the largest one in decades. Those three Western countries are presenting this as an "act of solidarity", but it's really proof of the US' hegemonic power over them.