Russian prisoner Brittney Griner and the growing trend of hostage diplomacy

'Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show' hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton sound off on the 'incompetence' of Biden as she and other Americans languish overseas.

Bad behavior by the world’s rogue actors has become so shocking that we can lose track of their full array of dirty tricks. So, it is with the age-old practice of hostage-taking, which is staging a comeback. Even one of the world’s most famous women, basketball star Brittney Griner, couldn’t escape the vicious game of hostage diplomacy.

Caged since February and possibly facing a decade in prison for allegedly possessing cannabis oil, the Olympian is a pawn in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine as he pushes back at sanctions and his forces battle western weapons. She joins dozens of fellow Americans and many more westerners languishing in captivity. 

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted to a courtroom for a hearing, in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, July 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

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.

BRITTNEY GRINER GETS SUPPORTIVE TESTIMONY FROM RUSSIAN BASKETBALL FIGURES AT LATEST HEARING

Governments tend to buckle in the face of pressure by paying ransom, caving into prisoner swaps that let criminals go free, and other concessions. Indeed, autocrats know democracies are often willing to violate core values to bring home their citizens.

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