President Biden’s historic deal to release high-profile Americans from Russian prisons has ignited a debate about the high cost and strategic wisdom of such exchanges, with Republicans and even some Democrats warning that it will only embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin. and like-minded adversaries.
For decades, presidential administrations and Congress have struggled to figure out how to deter and respond to politically motivated hostage-taking and arrests of Americans. It is a problem that is based on extortion efforts, but each case is unique according to the circumstances.
“It’s very easy for someone who isn’t currently in power to say, ‘Oh, what a horrible deal. Why did you do that?’ But I think if you go back to the records, the hostage takers wouldn’t give the hostages back for nothing,” said Jason Rezian, a Washington Post columnist who was imprisoned in Iran for 544 days before being released in a multifaceted deal including a prisoner swap. , during the Obama administration.
“They don’t take hostages for fun. They do it because they see it as an opportunity.”
Former President Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, boasted that he would have struck a better deal than Biden with Russian President Vladimir Putin to secure the release of those wrongfully imprisoned.
Biden’s multifaceted deal — which freed 16 people in exchange for eight Russian citizens held in prisons in the U.S. and Europe — appeared to hinge on Germany’s decision to free a convicted Russian murderer. Vadim Krasikov was serving a life sentence for the 2019 murder of a Georgian-Chechen dissident.
“We would have gotten him back, we wouldn’t have had to pay anything, we wouldn’t have had to let some of the world’s great killers go,” Trump said in an interview with Fox, referring to Evan Gershkovich. the Wall Street Journal reporter freed as part of the deal, and others.
Biden, asked by a reporter at the White House to respond to Trump’s claims, asked: “Why didn’t you do this when you were president?”
Paul Whelan, freed in Biden’s prisoner exchange, was arrested in 2018 during Trump’s term. Trump said he rejected a deal to free convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to secure Whelan’s release. American Trevor Reed was also arrested by Russia during the Trump administration; he was released under the Biden administration in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug smuggling. The fight was later negotiated to free WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russian custody in December 2022.
Despite claims that he has negotiated nothing to secure the release of U.S. citizens imprisoned or held hostage abroad, Trump’s track record in releasing Americans detained abroad is replete with deals marked by prisoner swaps, release of terrorists and diplomatic overtures.
Trump said he secured the release of 59 Americans during his first term.
These agreements included the release in 2019 of three senior Taliban leaders from prison in Afghanistan. for the release of an American and Australian. In 2020, the Trump administration secured the release of two Americans detained by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, in exchange for the repatriation of around 250 Yemenis to the Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa.
Trump has also engaged in one-for-one exchanges to free Americans — in 2019, negotiating with an Iranian scientist convicted of violating sanctions for Xiyue Wang, an American academic.
Wang, after being released from an Iranian prison, criticized Democrats for having a weak foreign policy and said it is a weak foreign policy. “fair argument” that Trump could have gotten a better deal.
“I was arrested in Iran when Obama was in power, Princeton’s sophisticated connections to the Obama establishment made no difference to me,” he said.posted on social media siteOn thursday.
“Trump’s deal with Iran that freed me gave Iran little more than nothing. The US can only make this kind of deal with a strong foreign policy stance, which the Biden administration does not have.”
Trump’s allies followed this line of attack after the four Americans returned from Russia.
“Essentially, we’ve traded journalists for murderers and thieves, and it’s like trading a rifle for a spoon,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said on Fox News.
But Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, struck a more muted tone, describing Biden’s deal as an “exorbitant price” and calling for redoubling efforts to bring back two remaining Americans. arrested in Russia.
This includes American Marc Fogel, who worked as a teacher in Russia and was arrested in 2021 for possessing marijuana that he said was for medicinal use. He was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Lawmakers pressured the State Department to label Fogel “wrongfully detained” — a distinction that was applied to three of the freed Americans.
Ksenia Karelina, a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, who traveled to Russia to visit her family, was detained in February and accused of treason, with Russian security services accusing her of collecting funds for the Ukrainian army. Her family said she donated $51.80 to a charity that provides humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
“Efforts to free these two must be redoubled, along with ways to deter future hostage diplomacy,” Risch said in his statement.
That tone echoed a joint statement from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who called for more efforts to deter rogue governments from imprisoning Americans.
“Swapping hardened Russian criminals for innocent Americans does little to discourage [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s reprehensible behavior,” they said.
Rezian, who sits on the bipartisan Commission on Hostage Taking and Unjust Detention at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that, overall, the tone of criticism about deals to bring Americans home has softened over the years.
“I think there is an acceptance and a recognition that when Americans who have been illegally held hostage abroad return home and are reunited with their families, it is really inappropriate to question whether or not that was the right thing to do,” he said. he.
“Eight and a half years ago, when I came home, that wasn’t the case.”
Congress has sought to address hostage-taking by state actors. In 2020, Congress passed the Robert Levinson Hostage Recovery Act and Hostage Taking Accountability Act to provide the State Department with more resources to defend Americans taken abroad and impose sanctions on hostage takers.
In 2022, Biden signed an executive order to facilitate more cooperation and communication between the State Department and the National Security Council to work on recovering Americans detained abroad. The order also focused on increasing warnings to Americans about dangerous places around the world where there is a high risk of politically motivated arrests, kidnappings and hostage taking.
But there is little in these efforts that implements real deterrence to discourage hostage taking.
“Until there is a higher cost and a realistic cost to do this, governments will continue to do this. And that’s really the heart of what the commission is looking at,” Rezian said of the Commission on Hostage Taking and Unjust Detention.
The commission’s co-chairs are former Trump national security adviser and former leader in hostage negotiations Robert O’Brien and Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).
“What is a thoughtful and robust policy response to the hostage crisis right now? Because there certainly is one. How is that? How should it look? That’s what we’re trying to do,” Rezian said.
When asked Thursday what more can be done to prevent countries from detaining Americans, Biden put the onus on American citizens.
“Advising people not to go to certain places, telling them what is at risk and what is at stake,” he said.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
