Friends and family of Michigan's Paul Whelan rejoiced with enormous relief when he finally made it back to the United States after being detained in a Russian prison for over six years.
Whelan, a security contractor and former U.S. marine was convicted of spying, but maintains he got caught up in a Russian sting. American journalist Evan Gershkovich was also among the 24 detainees released in the historic prisoner swap.
“All those people were arrested and convicted specifically so they could be used as pawns, as human bargaining chips," said Tom Nichols, an opinion writer for The Atlantic. He recently wrote an essay detailing the benefits for Russia of systematically detaining Americans and Europeans, and how President Putin has manipulated prisoner negotiations to his own benefit.
In his essay, Nichols writes, “The release of journalists and dissidents is unequivocally good news—but the grubby reality is that the Russians have engaged in successful hostage-taking.”
Nichols says a lot has changed since the Cold War. "Those were different kinds of swaps. This is just the Russians holding innocent people until the pain level gets high enough in the West for us to trade them. To trade bad guys for innocent people.”
Listen in to the full conversation with Tom Nichols on the Stateside podcast today.
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GUESTS ON TODAY’S SHOW:
- Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, author of the Atlantic Daily newsletter, and professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College
