Gershkovich and Whelan are free

I was just on my way to Israel, Lebanon and Iran when a Daily Beast update ran across my screen with that rarest of occurrences — Good News.

"Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. marine Paul Whelan were released from imprisonment in Russia on Thursday as part of a prisoner swap deal, according to sources familiar with the matter.

"The pair were freed after days of intense speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin was preparing to free high-profile prisoners, though it remained unclear exactly who would be freed—and who the Kremlin would want in return."

The Beast's report is brief since details have yet to be disclosed. There was room enough, however, for the story to end on a sour note — one, I should think, better left for followup reporting:

A Bulgarian journalist who took part in negotiating the exchange, Christo Grozev, told the Beast yesterday that the deal is "bittersweet." Two innocent men "who were rotting away in Russian prisons on insane charges" were freed, but "as long as [Putin] hoards 'swap capital' he will always be able to get his killers, hackers, and spies back," said Grozev.

All I can say to that is when the Putins, Xis and Maduros of this world are finally exterminated, such swap deals will also go dark. Yet humankind has a long way to go before it no longer must suffer such goons. Until then, and for now, the world of human decency can rejoice in the return of Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan.

Welcome home, gentlemen. 

°°°

I just read this from Tom Nichols, The Atlantic:

"Prisoner swaps always serve at least two Russian purposes.... One is to show the world that the West, like Russia, trades in flesh. When the media call such deals 'prisoner exchanges,' they are being accurate, but the term creates a veneer of equivalence: We have prisoners; they have prisoners; everyone makes deals. The fact that the West is holding Russian murderers and spies and Russia is holding Western journalists and basketball players is lost in the cold details of trading living human beings as if they were heads of cattle or loads of lumber.

"But more important—and more dangerous—is the fact that every successful hostage deal is a signal from Putin to the people who do his bidding overseas that he will rescue them if they are caught."

Nichols' second point is indisputable. What I'll never understand, though, is why any American or Westerner would step foot in Russia, knowing that they're a potential bargaining chip for Vlad. But his first point, I can't see. Perhaps if one is so utterly removed from the real world, they see only the "veneer of equivalence." But that would require a reality-removal even Trumpers have not undertaken. I think?

Comments

[VoiceOfReason]

It looks like Putin is hedging his bets...and Trump is not amused.