We can scream, moan and complain all we want, but the United States isn’t going to get these arrangements for free.
Former prisoner held by Russia and U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich is welcomed by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Aug. 1, 2024.The scenes tugged at the heart strings. Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter nabbed during a reporting assignment by Russian police last year on bogus charges of espionage, was finally reunited with his mother on an airport tarmac after spending about a year and a half in the Russian prison system.
There were complications, nuances and moral deliberations to this prisoner exchange. As Biden administration officials were negotiating, they quickly concluded that nothing would get done unless contract killer and former Russian intelligence officer Vadim Krasikov was part of the deal. Krasikov, a veteran of the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was arrested in 2019 after he murdered a former Chechen separatist fighter in a Berlin park.
The critics have a point. There’s no question that U.S. adversaries such as Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela have engaged in a pattern of scooping up innocent Americans on frivolous charges, likely for the sole purpose of using them as chips to be cashed. For the Russians, this usually involves getting their own spies back to Moscow. For the Iranians and Venezuelans, it’s typically about forcing sanctions relief from Washington. For the North Koreans, the motive is often a mystery.
Yet at the same time, concessions are inevitable. If U.S. officials really want to get their people back, they have no choice but to put something on the table to incentivize the other side to play ball. We can scream, moan and complain about this all we want, but the simple fact is that the United States isn’t going to get these arrangements for free.
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