CNN claims Biden admin scouring allied nations for a Russian prisoner swap

[TiltsAreUnderrated]

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/11/politics/prisoner-swap-russian-spies-biden-administration/index.html

The consequences of trading Brittney Griner for the Merchant of Death - and the subsequent, predictable arrest of Evan Gershkovich - roll on.

The Biden admin is trying to persuade countries such as Brazil, Norway, and former Soviet bloc countries to trade convicted spies for Paul Whelan, who was likely imprisoned for a regular crime after being dismissed from the Marines, and Gershkovich, who was arrested in part because of how lucrative this kind of hostage-taking is proving to be.

The administration believes it has no spies of sufficient seniority to be worth trading for these two. Among the spies the US hopes to trade is a guy imprisoned in Germany who committed an assassination in broad daylight in Berlin.

[Yoda]

I'll reiterate what I said the last thread where we talked about these lopsided prisoner swaps: there should be a travel ban on Russia. There's no damn good reason any American should be going to Russia just to potentially become another Putin bargaining chip and we should not be allowing any Russian into our country, period. Allowing a state sponsor of terrorism citizen's free travel to our country when they have quite clearly demonstrated that they want to wreak havoc on our elections and our infrastructure through non-stop hacking is brain dead. They can have their travel privileges back when every single Russian has left Ukraine and the kidnapped kids have all been returned.

[Fight for Trump]

Or we could just be friends with Russia?...

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Arrest the highest-level Russian figures you can find on whatever shaky charges you can manufacture and go from there.

Russia can't get what they want out of this one, because the next step will be hostage-takings of full airplanes like Belarus toyed with. This isn't a case like Griner or Whelan where there's a legit crime. This is an abduction and everyone knows it.

[TheReckoning]

I'll reiterate what I said the last thread where we talked about these lopsided prisoner swaps: there should be a travel ban on Russia. There's no damn good reason any American should be going to Russia just to potentially become another Putin bargaining chip and we should not be allowing any Russian into our country, period. Allowing a state sponsor of terrorism citizen's free travel to our country when they have quite clearly demonstrated that they want to wreak havoc on our elections and our infrastructure through non-stop hacking is brain dead. They can have their travel privileges back when every single Russian has left Ukraine and the kidnapped kids have all been returned.

Politics aside, Russia is an amazing country, and people should be allowed to experience its awesomeness.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I'll reiterate what I said the last thread where we talked about these lopsided prisoner swaps: there should be a travel ban on Russia. There's no damn good reason any American should be going to Russia just to potentially become another Putin bargaining chip and we should not be allowing any Russian into our country, period. Allowing a state sponsor of terrorism citizen's free travel to our country when they have quite clearly demonstrated that they want to wreak havoc on our elections and our infrastructure through non-stop hacking is brain dead. They can have their travel privileges back when every single Russian has left Ukraine and the kidnapped kids have all been returned.

Politics aside, Russia is an amazing country, and people should be allowed to experience its awesomeness.

Russia is indeed a beautiful country. Anyone claiming otherwise either doesn't know what the country has to offer or has bad taste.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The problem is that Bush W did Abu Grab and Trump did Russia Collusion, Russia Collusion was different pre 2014 because no Ukraine invasion but Putin is just like Trump

[Alben Barkley]

I'll reiterate what I said the last thread where we talked about these lopsided prisoner swaps: there should be a travel ban on Russia. There's no damn good reason any American should be going to Russia just to potentially become another Putin bargaining chip and we should not be allowing any Russian into our country, period. Allowing a state sponsor of terrorism citizen's free travel to our country when they have quite clearly demonstrated that they want to wreak havoc on our elections and our infrastructure through non-stop hacking is brain dead. They can have their travel privileges back when every single Russian has left Ukraine and the kidnapped kids have all been returned.

Politics aside, Russia is an amazing country, and people should be allowed to experience its awesomeness.

Russia is indeed a beautiful country. Anyone claiming otherwise either doesn't know what the country has to offer or has bad taste.

A country being beautiful or not -- and I'd argue just about every country in the world has at least SOME beauty to offer -- has little to no bearing on whether travel restrictions should be imposed on it.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I'll reiterate what I said the last thread where we talked about these lopsided prisoner swaps: there should be a travel ban on Russia. There's no damn good reason any American should be going to Russia just to potentially become another Putin bargaining chip and we should not be allowing any Russian into our country, period. Allowing a state sponsor of terrorism citizen's free travel to our country when they have quite clearly demonstrated that they want to wreak havoc on our elections and our infrastructure through non-stop hacking is brain dead. They can have their travel privileges back when every single Russian has left Ukraine and the kidnapped kids have all been returned.

Stop trying to make my travel planning harder than it already is.

[Torie]

Yeah, if the deal is that Putin will jail Americans in his grasp to trade for bad guys, we have a problem. How does one deal with that?

1. Ban travel to Russia without prior approval.
2. If citizens insist on going to Russia, despite warnings, not trade squat for them.
3. Start snatching bad boy Russians.
4 ?

A very bad precedent is developing here. How best to short circuit that?

[2952-0-0]

Yeah, if the deal is that Putin will jail Americans in his grasp to trade for bad guys, we have a problem. How does one deal with that?

1. Ban travel to Russia without prior approval.
2. If citizens insist on going to Russia, despite warnings, not trade squat for them.
3. Start snatching bad boy Russians.
4 ?

A very bad precedent is developing here. How best to short circuit that?

1 and 3 are against the principles of a free society. 2 would embolden Putin to arrest as many western citizens as he can, until the western governments have to talk.

Here's an idea, that conforms to the principles of a free society while demonstrating strength.

Identify the assets of Russian oligarchs in western countries and place a lien of $100,000 per day that the citizens aren't freed.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Yeah, if the deal is that Putin will jail Americans in his grasp to trade for bad guys, we have a problem. How does one deal with that?

1. Ban travel to Russia without prior approval.
2. If citizens insist on going to Russia, despite warnings, not trade squat for them.
3. Start snatching bad boy Russians.
4 ?

A very bad precedent is developing here. How best to short circuit that?

Simple, kill Putin

[Yoda]

I'll reiterate what I said the last thread where we talked about these lopsided prisoner swaps: there should be a travel ban on Russia. There's no damn good reason any American should be going to Russia just to potentially become another Putin bargaining chip and we should not be allowing any Russian into our country, period. Allowing a state sponsor of terrorism citizen's free travel to our country when they have quite clearly demonstrated that they want to wreak havoc on our elections and our infrastructure through non-stop hacking is brain dead. They can have their travel privileges back when every single Russian has left Ukraine and the kidnapped kids have all been returned.

Politics aside, Russia is an amazing country, and people should be allowed to experience its awesomeness.

That "aside" is doing some seriously heavy lifting. I'm not trying to lump every single person in Russia in with Putin, but seriously, how does a country have "amazing" status in your mind when it has none of the basic freedoms we enjoy? No free speech, no freedom of assembly, no equality, no due process. The only speech a Russian is allowed to have is speech that repeats state propaganda. I don't care how beautiful Siberia is or whatever, when the country is arguably the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism, it just can't be "amazing."

[Badger]

Or we could just be friends with Russia?...

Obviously not any time soon.

Seriously tough to tell sometimes whether or not you are trolling.