Behind the jubilation over the latest release of Americans wrongfully imprisoned abroad is growing concern that a new era of hostage diplomacy has dawned, with America’s adversaries finding it pays to trade Americans for smugglers, spies and even convicted murderers.
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American officials and former officials worry that strongmen like President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia are exploiting America’s willingness to barter for its citizens. Among those returned to Moscow on Aug. 1 in a deal involving 24 prisoners and seven nations was a Russian assassin serving a life sentence in Germany for shooting dead a Kremlin foe in a Berlin park.
“I’m concerned about the incentive this gives nations to kidnap Americans,” said Adam Hickey, a former deputy assistant prosecutor at the U.S. Justice Department. “I don’t see how this won’t lead to an escalation or increase” in the practice by foreign governments.
But practical alternatives are hard to come by, Hickey and other experts acknowledge.
In response to the deal, former President Donald J. Trump suggested that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had set a “bad precedent” by paying too high a price to Putin.
Trump, however, offered no evidence that he could have agreed to a better deal, other than a false claim that he had given up “NOTHING” as President to secure the release of Americans imprisoned abroad. In fact, Trump has swapped prisoners with American adversaries, including Iran and the Afghan Taliban, on at least four occasions.
Biden has presided over several trades, vowing to never abandon defenseless Americans. In late 2022, he approved a deal with Russia that swapped notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for basketball star Brittney Griner.
In all cases, U.S. officials said the freed Americans had been jailed on trumped-up charges or received sentences wildly disproportionate to any actual crimes.
U.S. officials are aware of the long-term risks of making deals and have explored deterrents such as punitive sanctions. But the two worst offenders, Russia and Iran, are already under heavy U.S. sanctions, and it is unclear whether more sanctions would work.
Hickey said that “at some point, the United States government has to say, ‘There are places in the world where an American cannot go — and if he does, we cannot help him. ’” He said exceptions should even be made for some essential activities, including the journalism of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was released from prison on Aug. 1 after his conviction on trumped-up espionage charges.
Ryan Fayhee, a former federal prosecutor who has also worked with families of detained Americans, said the growing practice of prisoner exchanges must be accompanied by greater public education about the risks of travel and some effective way to punish “any country that wants to conduct its foreign policy by taking hostages.”
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