Prisoner swap a ‘joyous day’ amid a dark era in U.S.-Russia relations

Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

Thursday’s prisoner swap, the most sweeping since the Cold War, was primarily between Russia and the United States. But it involved eight nations, with Russia relinquishing 16 prisoners (including one from Belarus) while Western nations, including the U.S., repatriated eight to Russia.

What was multilaterally complex was morally clear, however, given the asymmetric list of prisoners each superpower sought.

For the U.S., the priorities included three Americans: Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and two journalists — Evan Gershkovich from the Wall Street Journal and Alsu Kurmasheva from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. (Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian dissident who won a Pulitzer Prize this year for his Washington Post commentary, was also included.) Another dozen Russians — dissidents, mostly, including some who were working with Alexei Navalny, who was Russia’s most prominent opposition figure before he died in a Siberian prison earlier this year — were also freed from their gulags.

For Russia, its highest priority was Vadim Krasikov, an assassin convicted for killing a Chechen separatist fighter in Berlin. Among others sought in the swap were two cybercriminals, including one whose hacking cost financial institutions $169 million and one whose insider trading scheme skimmed $93 million; a smuggler of electronics and ammunition for Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, as well as others convicted of espionage.

The values imbalance between the U.S. and the Russian government — notably, not necessarily the Russian people, as evidenced by the undaunted dissidents included in the exchange — reflects a depth of division not seen since Soviet days. This divide is driving much of the tension between the Kremlin and Western capitals.

“A key issue is that we — the U.S. and other countries that value human rights — assume that other leaders and regimes hold the same morals that we do,” said Margo Squire, a former Foreign Service officer whose postings included Moscow. Squire, a speaker or moderator at some Global Minnesota events, added that “we underestimate the different views and autocratic regimes’ desire for power at our peril. As we see in the ruthless war against Ukraine, and in the arrests of innocent American tourists and journalists in Russia and silencing of Russians who act against the [Vladimir] Putin regime.”

And indeed the Russian president, who rarely meets foreign leaders at the tarmac, embraced the convicted criminals at the Moscow airport.

For their part, U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris headed to Joint Base Andrews and embraced Whelan, Gershkovich and Kurmasheva, as well as their grateful families. Biden also thanked allies who made “the toughest call” on springing the guilty so innocents could be free. Harris, commenting on the complicated exchange, said it was “an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy.”

While technically a prisoner exchange, the Americans weren’t criminals.

They were hostages.

“It’s 100% clear that [Gershkovich and Kurmasheva] were arrested because they’re journalists and because they would be valuable bargaining chips in a trade like this,” said Clayton Weimers, the executive director of Reporters Without Borders USA, which like other advocacy groups and the reporters’ news organizations worked tirelessly for what Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker called a “joyous day.”

Gershkovich and Kurmasheva “were arrested because of their journalism,” continued Weimers. What the Kremlin accused the Wall Street Journal reporter of doing “is going around asking questions, trying to gather information about the Russian state’s war effort. That is what journalists do — he was investigating a story.

“And it is extremely telling that in the Kremlin’s view, journalism is tantamount to espionage.”

In fact, Russia “absolutely does not have a free press,” said Squire. “Taking hostages is a convenient way to solve two problems,” she explained. “One, to get rid of the immediate problem of a journalist who’s doing a good job and has fluent Russian” (like Gershkovich and Kurmasheva), and two, to send a “chilling message to other journalists and other political dissidents.”

The self-censorship is institutionalized, said someone who was part of it: Todd Lefko, who wrote, restrictedly, for 18 years in Moscow for a state-controlled journal (which he deemed “Putin’s paper”). Lefko, like Squire involved in Global Minnesota events, now chairs East-West Connections, which is focused on citizen diplomacy between the U.S. and people of the former Soviet Union.

Connections between such people requires a shared base of information. “During a period when truth is being questioned across the world, it is more important than ever to have honest analysts reporting from on-site locations worldwide,” said Lefko. “Without this possibility, a series of parallel civilizations and ‘truths’ will develop, negating communication and understanding.”

Paring back the parallel civilizations and truths requires reporters in Russia and other authoritarian nations — despite the risks.

“How can you expect to really understand what’s going on in another country that’s so important as Russia is to us and the future of the world, with all that’s going on in Ukraine?” Squire asked rhetorically. “It’s important to have our journalists there,” she answered, saying that journalists “provide a service to the American public” and “the whole world by providing coverage of things and people and events that we otherwise wouldn’t have.” It’s important, Squires continued, “to have people like that who are willing to put their necks out and have such inside knowledge about these countries.”

There’s “no mincing words here,” said Weimers. “It’s incredibly dangerous to do journalism in Russia. You need to do all the precautions you can. But at the same time, we can’t afford Russia to go completely dark. We still need reliable information out of that country in order to make sense of things like the war in Ukraine. Russians living all over the world, particularly those who have been forced into exile in recent years by Vladimir Putin, deserve to understand their homeland, and the only way we can do that is by having legitimate journalists reporting reliable information.”

And here at home, Weimers emphasized, “you can’t participate in a democracy unless you’re informed.”

To those who say that because of the jeopardy, journalists shouldn’t go to Russia, Weimers responds: “That conclusion is exactly what Vladimir Putin would like us to draw.”

Gershkovich, for one, didn’t seem ready to draw that conclusion. While he may not return to Russia, his belief in the power and imperative of journalism was apparent throughout his tribulation, including when he filled out the official, required request for presidential clemency that is sent directly to Putin.

The document includes a long space that most petitioners leave blank. But not Gershkovich.

Instead, intrepidly, he filled it out, with this request: After his release, would Putin agree to an interview?

Such guts got Gershkovich through his ordeal and will get the West through this era, too.