Americans are celebrating the exchange of severalconvictedRussian spies and agents for several journalists and political activists that Putin took hostage.

To me this deal seems to be a victory for Putin, of a sort that will lead him to keep grabbinghostages whenever there are convicted Russian spies he wants to protect.

It seems to me that the patriotic hostage says, "Don't ransom me if that harms my country!" And theprudent traveler stays away from countries such asRussia,ChinaandIran,that are likely to grab a hostage to exchange.