The seven-nation prisoner swap that saw three US citizens freed from Russia has been described as the 'most far-reaching exchange between Russia and the West in decades'. Here's why it's so significant.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans were freed from Russia in a prisoner exchange on August 1, 2024. In total, 24 prisoners, including 12 German nationals and eight Russia ns, as well as two children — who were not prisoners — were exchanged in Ankara, Turkey .
The real question is whether it would be better if there were some kind of international legal framework that would allow hostage and political prisoner releases to happen within a prescribed set of guidelines. In recent history, countries taking political prisoners and other foreigners hostage has become more common. A next step could be to set up international agreements that would institutionalise channels for hostage and prisoner release.
Each case of a hostage or political prisoner exchange is a story of its own. There may be common political factors that are in play as countries get more experience with this issue and learn lessons about what to do and what to say or not.Is there any other sort of informal playbook that countries might look to during these negotiations?
The US also has an internal mechanism set up so we can categorise US citizens who have been "wrongly detained" by other countries. That is not making a judgment on our part as to guilt or innocence — that simply means that internally, as far as we are concerned, different government agencies and officials are involved in expediting the possibility of an exchange or release.
There may be a perfectly legitimate procedural reason that Gershkovich's lawyers asked to move his trial date forward. But the Russians have been categorical in recent times in insisting anyone who is being exchanged as part of a deal with another country must be convicted first, rather than released before a trial. There is no reason to exchange an innocent — that is an unconvicted — person. Griner was also convicted before she was released to the US.
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