Russian prisoner Brittney Griner and the growing trend of hostage diplomacy

Basketball star Brittney Griner is world-famous but even she got caught in Russia's vicious game of hostage taking.

As citizens of democracies, when our governments allow this – when we project indifference to fellow citizens stripped of the presumption of innocence – we are in effect supporting the hostage-takers.  U.S. Marine Trevor Reed landed in Texas, April 28, 2022, after a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia. (Rep. August Pfluger) Joe Reed, the father of former US Marine Trevor Reed, stands next to a placard of his son outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 29, 2021, during a press conference. -  (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) FILE - Joey and Paula Reed pose for a photo with a portrait of their son Marine veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, Feb. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File) (AP Photo/LM Otero, File) Joey and Paula Reed, parents of U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed, stand in Lafayette Park near the White House, Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Washington.  ((AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)) US ex-marine Trevor Reed, charged with attacking police, stands inside a defendants' cage during his verdict hearing at Moscow's Golovinsky district court on July 30, 2020. (Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP) Jonathan Wachtel served as Director of Communications and Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. As a journalist he covered international conflicts for more than two decades for ABC, Fox, and Worldwide Television News.

It goes far beyond Russia. From Azerbaijan to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela, we see hostages taken again and again as bargaining chips by autocratic regimes. While Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions prohibits this, and democracies have sanctioned Syria’s Assad and Russia’s Putin for their aggression and butchery, hostage diplomacy goes strangely unpunished.