Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is free, roughly a year after being abducted by the Russian government. In exchange, we gave them (among others) Vadim Krasikov, a "former intelligence officer…[who] had shot and killed a rebel leader in a Berlin park, and was serving a life sentence."
You may remember a previous swap, for WNBA player Brittney Griner, in which we gave them the so-called merchant of death Viktor Bout.
The Journal bemoans that "the exchange is emblematic of a new era of state-sponsored hostage-taking by autocratic governments seeking leverage over rivals." Ummm… I dunno; perhaps Americans should simply stop visiting a country in which they're likely to be abducted by the government?