In December 2022, I wrote about a US prisoner swap with Russia, highlighting the history of Prisoner Exchanges, since the first treaty between the West and Soviet Russia signed in February 1920.
I am so pleased for Evan Gershkovich and the other prisoners released from jails in Russia. His trumped up charges were in direct contrast to the heinous crimes of Vadim Krasikov, who was serving a life-sentence in Germany for carrying out an assassination in Berlin. However, given the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, we cannot be too moralistic about the reasons for imprisonment, but merely thankful that these men, women and children have been freed from unfair incarceration.
Unfortunately, their anguish is not yet over because the process of debriefing by the CIA and other intelligence agencies will be a long and stressful. Evan has already received a rapturous welcome back by the Wall Street Journal, and I really hope that he is able to put the trauma behind him and return to his writing, like Francis McCullagh and Margueritte Harrison who suffered a similar ordeal one hundred years ago.
Francis McCullagh and Margueritte Harrison – Irish and American Journalists imprisoned in Moscow in 1920
Rupert Wieloch 