Putin's Pawns

Foreign Podicy

When we talk about ‘hostage diplomacy’, it’s almost like we’re normalizing and legitimizing hostage-taking and admitting that American policy is not to deter hostage-taking or punish hostage-takers but simply to manage the criminals’ demands for ransom and the release of their terrorists and other rewards – and to do it with respect and civility.

Vladimir Putin is among the autocratic world leaders who understand how much benefit – and how little risk – is involved in taking hostages from countries that respect international law and then offering to trade them for something or someone he wants.

Since March of last year, his regime has incarcerated and just sentenced to 16 years in prison Evan Gershkovich, a fully accredited foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, on what are obviously baseless and bogus charges.

But Putin also is holding another American journalist: Alsu Kurmasheva with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Her husband, Pavel Butorin, also an RFE/RL journalist, joins host Cliff May and his FDD colleague Rich Goldberg to tell her — and his — story.