Prisoner swaps, the latest of which took place in April, were part of US President Donald Trump’s effort to stabilize relations with Russia after years of diplomatic friction. Kirill Dmitriev, an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told Axios that the prospect of another exchange was raised during his trip to Washington in late October.
“I met some US officials and members of the Trump team on some issues that are humanitarian in nature, such as possible exchanges of prisoners that the US side has been working on,” Dmitriev told the outlet in a phone interview.
US officials confirmed that Dmitriev discussed the idea with special envoy Steve Witkoff and other members of the Trump administration, but no agreement has been reached and no names have been publicly identified, according to Axios.
The Trump administration has rejected the previous White House’s strategy of isolating Moscow over the Ukraine conflict, promoting instead what it calls a pragmatic normalization process. Officials have described prisoner exchanges as a confidence-building element meant to repair bilateral ties damaged under President Joe Biden.
In May, Washington reportedly provided Moscow with a list of nine people whose release it wanted. One of them, Joseph Tater, reportedly left Russia in June, after a court overturned his involuntary psychiatric commitment stemming from a brief altercation with police during an apparent mental health episode.
Witkoff, who has been handling several sensitive negotiations for Trump, was personally involved in arranging prisoner exchanges with Russia. This week he is expected to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Türkiye.
