Lt. Col (Ret.) Alexander Vindman: Russia ‘takes hostages to try to trade them away’
Former National Security Council Director Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, former ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder, David Ignatius, and Peter Baker join Andrea Mitchell to discuss Biden’s push for a $33 billion Ukraine aid package, and the prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia that led to Marine veteran Trevor Reed’s return home after being held for nearly three years in Moscow. Vindman explains that “Russia has a habit of taking hostages to trade away for folks that the U.S. has rightfully imprisoned after a lawful conviction. It takes hostages to try to trade them away.” While Reed’s release was not necessarily “tied to the broader geopolitical issues” of the war in Ukraine, “freeing Trevor is an indicator” that future exchanges are possible.