To be clear: Russia’s release of hostage and U. S citizen Stephen Hubbard is a good thing. It is good and right that Mr. Hubbard is back on home soil and free once again. The story though, is far from what the Trump administration and its fanboys are trying to make it.

Mr. Putin is a ‘humanitarian,’ said Envoy Steve Witcoff who appears to have played a role in the exchange (the apt phrasing, since we cannot know what role he actually acted in this daytime drama, other than standing stage-side to praise the dictators on cue…). No, if Mr. Puttin were a humanitarian, he would never have allowed Mr. Hubbard to be arrested, unfairly tried and unjustly imprisoned. Release, at this late date, does not negate those prolonged inhumanities.

Mr. Trump, for his part in the charade, has said that the U. S. gave Russia nothing in exchange for this Russian gesture, comparing the event favorably to earlier prisoner releases negotiated by other administrations as he offered particular self-congratulation that there was no economic exchange involved; claims for which only a child should fall. Though separated by a few days (‘yes, Sir, Mr. President, Sir: that gives us plausible deniability, Sir’) this release is clearly a gimme for Mr. Trump’s recent capitulations to Putin – throwing him economic lifelines in the form of petro deals and sanctions relief and (apparently, though yet to be documented) limiting arms and intelligence flows to the Ukrainians heroically resisting the takeover of their democratic and capitalist nation by its authoritarian socio-fascist neighbor.

So, yes, let’s give Messrs. Trump and Witkoff credit for what their messing-about has actually achieved – not some great ‘’humanitarian’ move by Mr. Putin, not a diplomatic triumph at no cost to the USA, but an insignificant concession that cost Putin nothing (maybe even saved a bit on his prison budget!) in exchange for potentially monumental costs to Ukraine, to democratic aspirations throughout Europe and Asia and to the moral and political values for which the US government once stood. A bargain basement public relations coup for the outlaw regime posing the most acute current threat to world peace and freedom.

Way to go, Team MAGA,

the midterms are coming,

there’s no time to waste,

let’s Make America Grovel Already!

P. S. – E Unum Pluribus is a speculative fiction novel that imagines how intentionally divisive winner-take-all politics may soon bring about the end of what Washington called our “Great Experiment.” Shining a light on what we stand to lose,, what could rise in its place and how some survivors might attempt to repair the damage, this cry of warning is currently being serialized online and is available to anyone, for free, by navigating to the homepage of this website and selecting E Unum Pluribus from the top menu, or via the following link:https://robinandrew.net/2026/01/01/e-unum-pluribus/

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