Former US President and presidential candidate Donald Trump congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin over the weekend for a prisoner swap that freed three US citizens detained in Russia.
"I would like to congratulate Putin for having made yet another great deal," Trump said during a campaign rally in Atlanta.
"We got our people back, but boy we make some horrible, horrible deals," he added.
"It's nice to say we got them back, but does that set a bad precedent?"
Türkiye's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) led a successful prisoner exchange involving seven countries in one of the most extensive swap operations in recent years.
The swap involved 26 prisoners from the US, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Norway, Russia and Belarus. During the operation, 10 prisoners, including two children, were sent to Russia, 13 to Germany and three to the US.
American journalist Evan Gerskovich and Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza are among those who have been released from Russian prisons.
According to security sources, the process that resulted in the transfer of the 26 prisoners began when the US, Russia and Germany asked for assistance from Türkiye, a country that has had success in mediating previous such exchanges.
At the same rally, Trump criticized his opponent in the presidential race from the Democratic Party, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Claiming that Harris has "the most ultra-left-wing agenda of any presidential candidate ever in history, he said: "She happens to be really a low IQ individual. She has a very low IQ. We don't need a low IQ."
