There is no moral equivalence in the just completed prisoner swap between the United States and Russia, none. Still, it would take a hard heart not to celebrate the release of a few trapped Americans, along with several others, all of whom had been locked up in Russia for purely political reasons.
Those released included the Russian dissident and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Vladimir Kara-Murza. To punish him for his resistance to the regime, Kara-Murza had been sealed in solitary confinement in a Siberian prison, serving out his ungodly, and for decades unprecedented, sentence of 25 years.
I previously posted twice about Kara-Murza, once on April 18, 2023; then again on May 8, 2024. Suffice it to say here that he has been, simultaneously, a follower and a leader. A follower by necessity, a leader by choice. As well, he has been the estimable successor to the most prominent Russian dissident of our time, the late Alexei Navalny.
In Kara-Murza’s honor, and in tribute to his release, I am reposting my previous pieces about him here.