Diplomacy rules. Sometimes

Having allies as friends works wonders when emergencies arise. One of Joe Biden's main legacies will be that he knew how to forge long-term friendships and relationships across the world, so that when a favour was needed, it would more often than not be granted. The mass exchange of prisoners following a year of hard bargaining with Russia is a classic case in point. More than anyone, Biden needed to use his friendship with Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, to get the final details sorted out. Vladimir Putin wanted, above all, to get his friend and employed assassin, Vadim Krasikov, released from jail in Germany where he had been convicted of murdering a Chechen dissident. Releasing this convicted killer was never going to be easy for Sholz, especially with the murdered victim's widow and family to appease if he did. But Biden explained in a phone call that it was in the interests of a much wider strategy and that without the release of Krasikov, none of the others, including the Wall Street Journal reporter, Evan Gershkovic, would be freed from their prison cells in Russia. I assume Biden called the German chancellor starting with "my dear Olaf". Can you imagine Donald Trump starting a telephone conversation like that with Scholz? No. So, diplomacy has had a good week even if it has meant a trained Russian killer going back to Moscow into the embrace of Vladimir Putin.