On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer responded to a question on how the Biden administration plans to prevent Americans from being wrongfully detained in the future by stating that we warn people not to go to certain countries, cut deals to get people released, and also issue sanctions.
Host Pamela Brown asked, “Did this deal incentivize Russia and other hostile states to wrongfully detain more Americans in the future? Is this a vicious cycle?”
Finer responded, “[T]here have been periods in our history when we did not do many deals like this and Americans were still held captive and held hostage abroad. There have been periods in which we have done more of these deals and Americans have been held captive and hostage abroad. At the end of the day, we’ve made a decision that we value the lives of Americans, that we are going to do everything possible to help Americans who are in a difficult situation, whether they’re at home or abroad. And when they’re abroad and stuck, we’re going to try to bring them home. That’s been a priority of this administration. It’s not something we apologize for. We think it is fundamentally in our interests and fundamentally supported by the American people to do that.”
Brown followed up, “[B]ut under the Biden administration, this is the third prisoner swap with Russia, and some Russian analysts and those who are watching all of this play out, they would say, look, Russia is using this practice of taking Americans in hopes of trading them as hostages more frequently, that Putin is seizing on this more in recent years and this is working. What do you say to that?”
Finer answered, “I want to be quite clear about one thing, as the president was, when he was asked a version of this question earlier today, we are telling Americans not to travel to Russia. They should not travel there. It is fundamentally dangerous for Americans to be present in Russia for a whole range of reasons, including the one that’s an issue in our conversation, which is they have a reasonable chance of being caught up in a justice system that is not remotely fair, to say the least.”
Brown then asked, “[I]s advising people against traveling really enough, right? That has been going on for years and years, and yet, we are still seeing people travel over there, including journalists like Gershkovich doing their jobs. What policies will the U.S. enact to meaningfully prevent more Americans from being wrongfully imprisoned?”
Finer answered, “So, our approach has a number of elements to this: One is these travel warnings, which we issue when we think it’s too dangerous for Americans to go to certain places, and there are a number of places on the map, including Russia and places like Iran and Syria that fall into this category. Second, though, when there are governments and countries that have taken this unconscionable step of unlawfully or wrongfully detaining Americans, we sanction them. That is a new approach taken in this administration, specific sanctions in line with statutes passed by Congress to punish countries that go down this path. And then third, is this diplomatic approach, because we just, fundamentally, as the administration will not believe in leaving people behind who are caught up in this situation when they are Americans.”
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