Gershkovich's Sentencing Exposes Corruption in Russian Legal System

Evan Gershkovich, a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison on espionage charges. There are ongoing discussions about a potential prisoner exchange to secure his release. One possibility is that Gershkovich could be exchanged for Sergey Cherkasov, a Russian accused of espionage in the United States. This process shows how corrupt the Russian legal system is and how easily it can convict innocent people just to have a suitable exchange partner for a Russian spy on the American side.

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PicturesOfABetterTomorrow · 41-45, M

The problem with this kind of thinking is everyone just assumes every westerner ever to be detained in Russia is a helpless innocent person and work backwards.

And exchanges don't really show anything about corruption either way.

It could be argued the exchange makes it more likely the Russians were right.

To be blunt at that level people become pawns in a chess game.

The US or any other nation would not hand over a spy for any random person who is arrested.

The fact they are suggests there is some truth to his being an intelligence asset.

Don't delude yourself. If you are not important you will be left to your own devices. At best it will be kicked down to the consulate to deal with.

Do you remember the Aussie government going out of their way to help Julian Assange? Me neither. He was not important enough to bother.