The prisoner swap with Russia. Tangle by Isaac Saul

Aug 6, 2024 at 1:00 AM//keep unread//hide

My take.

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Every writer we quoted today is glad these prisoners have returned home, and so am I.

Yes, their release comes at a political cost, and balancing the freedom of journalists against the imprisonment of criminals is very difficult.

Any deal with Russia will feel lopsided, since the U.S doesn’t imprison journalists, and today that’s a fact worth being proud of.

First and foremost, like the writers we quoted today, I’m incredibly glad these prisoners are free.

Despite my own Russian heritage and desire to see the country, I won't be traveling to Russia anytime soon (see: Vladimir Putin). But I know there are a lot of writers and reporters more courageous than I am, and they don't deserve to be rotting away in penal colonies because Putin can't tolerate a critical word written about him. Yes, the prisoners’ release comes at a cost; but it is fundamentally a good thing these people are home, and despite the political cost, we should all celebrate it.

Gershkovich's story was perhaps the most moving of all. Some people in the media spent part of last week debating whether the National Association of Black Journalists should have hosted Donald Trump at their annual conference (including me — I argued that yes, obviously, they should have). As The Wall Street Journal reported, Gershkovich’s last request upon leaving Russia was a one-on-one interview with Putin, his captor and tormentor. It's an incredible distinction: The American Twitter journalists who think interviewing Trump is beyond the pale contrasted with the foreign correspondent whose top priority is trying to interview the person who literally just imprisoned him for over a year.

That is journalism, and the spirit of a real journalist, and it's why people like Gershkovich are so valuable and should be a source of great American pride.

Does that mean this swap was a perfect outcome? Hardly. When President Biden landed a deal for the release of Britney Griner, I said he made the right bad deal. Griner's freedom came at a high price, and her release didn't include some of the other high-profile Americans who got left behind. Today, I share a very similar sentiment: This release came at a high price, though at least this time we also secured the release of several more Americans being held in prison (still, more remain). 

Now, I know a lot of pundits and writers are keen on armchair-quarterbacking decisions like this. I'm not one of them. Of all the things presidents have to deal with, putting a price on a person’s freedom seems like one of the most difficult. Biden’s critics seem capable of presenting precisely zero alternatives to what he did — which is typically a sign they don't have one. And it's no wonder. How do you value the life of an American citizen detained unjustly against a dangerous Russian spy?

I don't have great answers for these questions.

Of course, I understand the negative sentiments. For starters, any time we trade athletes or journalists for genuine criminals — like hitmen willing to kill someone publicly in Berlin — it feels like we're on the "losing" side of an international prisoner swap. I share the concerns of writers on the left and right who say this saga could be far from over — in part because we have shown our willingness to make major concessions to bring home our people. The more we negotiate the release of Americans, the stronger the signal is that foreign governments can unjustly arrest our citizens and use them as chess pieces. 

But at the end of the day, it’s worth remembering that any deal between the United States and Russia is going to feel lopsided; because while Putin kills, disappears and detains dissidents and journalists, our government arrests arms dealers and assassins. While Putin works tirelessly to get murderers and criminals out of prison, then brags about it, our leaders work tirelessly to free innocent journalists from prison.

Over the last several years, the war in Ukraine has stirred up a revitalization of an anti-American punditry that Russia is just "responding to NATO aggression" or that “Putin is no worse than American imperialist presidents.” I hope that moments like these bring clarity to the distinctions between free countries and authoritarian ones, and serve as a reminder of why the former are worth fighting for (and worth defending). 

We have a bloody and broken world, and we live in an imperfect and often unjust country, but I'm reminded on days like today that I much prefer our guys running the show than theirs.

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