In my day, it might have been two Roy Rogers for one Gene Autry. But for generations, kids have been swapping trading cards, or Hot Wheels, or a couple of Twinkies for a bag of chips.

In today’s adult world, the hot commodity is people.

This week’s news, even for Putin’s Russia, is so far beyond the pale as to be nearly inconceivable. But they have gone and done it: they have — after detaining him without formal charges for more than a year in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison — formally charged Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich with espionage, accusing him of spying for the CIA. If convicted, he could receive a sentence of up to twenty years in prison. (See my blog post of March 27, 2024, if you’re not familiar with his case.)

Russian prosecutors said the FSB (Federal Security Service) had “established and documented” that Gershkovich was acting on CIA instructions in “collect[ing] secret information” about a Russian tank factory. According to the charges, he had “carried out the illegal actions using painstaking conspiratorial methods.” [Anna Chernova, Christian Edwards and Jennifer Hansler, CNN, June 13, 2024.]

Is this happening now because, during the past 14 months, their investigators have found some new, plausible evidence to support these charges? Nope.

Is it because Gershkovich has actually confessed to some activity that could reasonably be construed as spying? Definitely not.

Or is it because the Russian standard for the acceptable parameters of a journalist’s job is so detached from reality and from worldwide accepted norms as to be unrecognizable? No, it isn’t even that — not in this case.

To put it as simply as possible, Evan Gershkovich, hostage, has now become Vladimir Putin’s No. 1 pawn in a deadly game of political chess. They want a swap. We are amenable to a swap, and in fact have been trying to negotiate a resolution for over a year. But what they want is not a fair trade . . . nor is it a simple one. What they apparently desire in exchange for this innocent journalist is a vicious, admitted killer-for-hire: Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel in Russia’s FSB, successor to the KGB, currently serving a life sentence in Germany following his conviction for assassination of a former Chechen fighter in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019.

To Russia, however, this butcher is a hero. In Putin’s own words, delivered in his now notorious interview with the equally notorious right-wing nut job Tucker Carlson: “Listen, I’ll tell you: sitting in one country, a country that is an ally of the United States, is a man who, for patriotic reasons, eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals.”

Could you ask for a clearer example of a double standard? He has already succeeded in getting back infamous arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for basketball star Brittney Griner, despite refusing to include American Paul Whelan (and possibly Russian dissident Alexei Navalny) in that negotiation. (Those talks fell through when Navalny suddenly and mysteriously died in the Siberian prison camp in which he was serving a 30-year combined sentence.) And now Putin wants another of his ignominious criminals released.

But there is a major problem in this case, and that is that Krasikov is not in America’s jurisdiction; he is in prison in Germany. And yes, Germany is our ally, and a member of NATO. But it is not our puppet, or anyone else’s. We cannot order Chancellor Scholz to install a traffic light on Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse, much less release a convicted murderer in a deal with Russia. It just doesn’t work that way.

And even if we were able to convince Chancellor Scholz that it would be in everyone’s best interests to do so, wouldn’t he be well within his rights to expect a little something in return? Perhaps there’s a German citizen being wrongfully detained in Russia on some spurious charge? Or maybe there is nothing — not a single thing — that Germany wants from Russia at this point in time. Whatever the circumstances, this is a three-way negotiation, not simply a tit-for-tat between Russia and the United States.

It’s complicated.

And in the meantime, Evan Gershkovich sits in Lefortovo Prison, awaiting transfer to an equally dismal facility in Yekaterinburg where he was originally arrested, and where he will look forward to further incarceration and ultimately to a sham trial and an inevitable guilty verdict. And more and more hostages keep piling up in Russia’s archipelago of prisons and penal colonies, while the best we and our allies can do is negotiate within the limits of international law.

Sometimes, life simply isn’t fair.

*. *. *

Postscript: And if you happen to be a fan of irony, or farce imitating reality, or simply a good laugh, I’ve got one for you. Earlier this week, Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner (and if that isn’t an oxymoron, I’ve never heard one), appealed to senior United Nations and other officials “to take action to secure the release of Russian nationals still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.” [Reuters, June 11, 2024.]

Writing on the Telegram messaging app, she said she had met in Moscow with relatives of the hostages still being held (of whom there were originally eight, three having already been released): “In one conversation, one of the mothers told me details of the situation of those being held.” Following that meeting, she appealed to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross “for the rapid return home of our compatriots.” [Reuters, id.]

Seriously??!!!

Well, perhaps she’d like to discuss a swap with the head of Hamas in Gaza for some of the hostages being held by her own government; I’m sure there must be an Islamist or two somewhere in Russia. Then she and Putin would find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of someone else’s middle finger.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/14/24