It is wrong to conclude that the prisoner exchange is a step towards improving relations with the United States. This was underlined by the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, the day after the release of the American basketball star, Brittney Grinerand the arms dealer, Victor Boutheld in the US.
“The negotiations concerned exclusively the issue of exchanges (of prisoners, ed.). It is probably wrong to draw hypothetical conclusions that this could be a step towards overcoming the crisis we have in bilateral relations. No, bilateral relations continue to be in a very bad state,” Peskov said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper.