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I am glad that Brittney Griner is safely home, but the occasion of her return should serve as a reminder that Americans living or traveling in other countries are subject to the laws of those countries, not ours ("Griner ready to talk after hearing Russian for months," Dec. 12). As a former vice consul at American embassies in Spain and Zambia, I was responsible for visiting Americans in prison in those countries every month. The most common crimes for which they were incarcerated were violations of drug laws. Some of the sentences were years long, much as Griner's was. Americans who violate drug laws in other countries — as they define them — can end up in prison, and there is very little the American government can do about it. My task as a diplomat was to ensure American prisoners were treated fairly under the laws of the host country, not overturn those laws or circumvent them — even when they were different from ours.

I have not heard the case made that Griner was innocent of the charges made against her under Russian law. I don't know if other Americans have been arrested in Russia under those laws and what the outcomes were. But it seems evident that Griner was released from Russian prison, at great cost, because of her celebrity and her connections. If you are traveling and don't have fame and connections, I urge you to make an effort to understand and obey local laws when you travel out of the United States. You will not likely be rescued and invited to the White House if you are arrested.

David C. Smith, Minneapolis

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There has been a lot of criticism in right-wing circles about President Joe Biden's decision to swap an arms dealer known as "the Merchant of Death" for the release of Griner, and I agree that there are reasons to question whether this was an appropriate move or not. But criticizing the decision by questioning why another American locked up in a Russian jail, Paul Whelan, was not included in the deal is misguided at best. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said, the Russians had no intention of including Whelan in any trade, so this was a question of "one or none."

Whelan has been described in the media as an ex-Marine who is being held under false claims of espionage. While it is true that he was once in the Marines and very well may have been falsely accused by the Russian authorities, several aspects of the story are not being widely discussed. First, Whelan was court-martialed in the Marines and eventually discharged for "bad conduct." The charges included attempted larceny, three instances of dereliction of duty, wrongfully using another's social security number, making a false official statement and 10 instances of writing checks without sufficient funds in his account. In addition, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, reported that Whelan had $80,000 in cash along on this visit.

While I'm not inclined to trust the Russians, and I'm not happy about any American being held there, there are aspects of this case that make one question Whelan's credibility and make one wonder if the Russian accusations may in fact be true. In any event, comparing Whelan's case to that of Griner's, an American who was locked up for having a small amount of medical marijuana in her possession, is a faulty exercise.

Philip M. Ahern, Shorewood

Regarding "Time's 'Person of the Year' channels Chaplin as much as Churchill" (Opinion Exchange, Dec. 10): Volodymyr Zelenskyy is one of those rare leaders who you can say is a truly honest man. His three-season TV satire series "Servant of the People," which fought corruption in Ukraine and in which he played a humble history teacher who incredibly becomes Ukraine's president (available on Netflix!), actually helped him get elected for real in 2018. More Charlie Chaplin than Winston Churchill, but the right man at the right time. Humor and satire are the one thing that fascism cannot stand up against since it feeds and thrives on anger and resentment.

With authoritarianism surfacing again I'm reminded of a beautiful anti-fascist editorial by the late Khushwant Singh of the "Illustrated Weekly of India" way back in 1975. In the 1930s while a student in England he attended one of British fascist Sir Oswald Mosely's rallies replete with its male and female blackshirts, flags, trumpets and drums, and silence as Sir Oswald strode up to the podium to deliver a speech. As he frowned at the audience he raised is right arm in the fascist salute … and from the balcony came the shrill voice of a schoolteacher: "Yes, Oswald, you may leave the room!"

The audience devolved into laughter, including the fascists, taking the wind from his sails, as it were.

As he pointed out in the editorial, fascists feed on anger, but the one weapon they do not have is a sense of humor.

Michael Mayer, Lakeville

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In his column about Volodymyr Zelenskyy becoming Time's Person of the Year, John Rash meditates on whether the Ukrainian president channels war leader Churchill or film comic Chaplin in his stand against totalitarianism. Rash does not mention an aspect of both Chaplin and Zelenskyy: Chaplin called himself a peace-monger and criticized the growing militarism of the major powers after World War II. Zelenskyy ran for president of Ukraine as a peace candidate, and promised to "reboot" the 2015 Minsk Agreement, which offered some degree of autonomy to the Donbas region.

Now I find it hard to imagine how to unwind this war, which can only escalate or stalemate. As our Congress passes our National Defense Authorization Act with $45 billion more than the president requested, the U.S. seems to choose the path of growing militarism. Chaplin and Zelenskyy both imagined better. The U.S. needs to rethink its policies or risk stumbling into yet another war, such as with China.

James Haefemeyer, Minneapolis

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No type of athletic, cultural, economic or academic exchanges should be entered into with Russia until it is out of all parts of Ukraine and has paid for all damages inflicted.

We have tried to exempt the nonpolitical Russian leaders from consequences, but why? Putin could not remain in power without the negligence of influencers at every level of Russian culture.

Putin represents a shame for every single Russian who fails to actively oppose him.

John Filter, St. Paul

The Star Tribune proudly declared in a headline on the front page Dec. 3 that "The Ojibwe were here first. A new map is a reminder." This is false. A quick search on the internet reveals the Sioux actually inhabited Minnesota first, until they were driven off their lands by the Ojibwe. In fact, the name "Sioux" comes from an Ojibwe word meaning "snakelike enemy."

But this above episode reveals another historical fact, also often ignored by popular culture, which is that claiming your conquered enemies' lands as your own was the norm nearly everywhere in the world, not the invention of degenerate white imperialists. In fact, this global norm only ended, and even then barely 100 years ago, thanks to the rise of Western (i.e., European) philosophy promoting a people's self determination and the importance of a physical cultural homeland.

We live in a time where there is an imperative to relook at our past and piece together the true story of our common history. This is only possible through truly scrubbing out the lies we've been told, not telling new ones.

Patrick Freese, Minneapolis