How Sanctions Can Help Bring Home American Hostages

The Levinson Act allows the administration to target individuals, not just organizations.

By and
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President Joe Biden gestures as an image of U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich appears onscreen during the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C., April 29, 2023. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

Last month, the State Department designated Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained” by Russia following his March arrest on bogus charges of espionage—barely three months after the highly controversial prisoner exchange of convicted arms dealer, Viktor Bout, to bring home Brittney Griner from her own wrongful detention. 

While the Biden administration has taken a welcome step toward addressing the growing problem of hostile powers taking Americans hostage–the White House hit Russia’s Federal Security Service and a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard with sanctions last week for their role in wrongfully detaining American citizens abroad—the Gershkovich case affords the government an opportunity to use a relatively new foreign policy tool for punishing foreign actors who wrongfully detain Amercans.

In late 2020, Congress passed the Levinson Act, named after former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who is believed to have died while being held hostage by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The law authorizes the president to impose sanctions not just on organizations, but on every individual—from prison guards to heads of state—complicit in holding Americans hostage. While the U.S. deploys sanctions against hostile powers for a number of reasons, it’s the first law tied solely to the seizing of U.S. nationals abroad.

In July 2022, President Biden issued an executive order that authorized Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in consultation with the treasury secretary and the attorney general, to impose asset-blocking and visa-denial sanctions on any individual who is directly or indirectly responsible for or complicit in the wrongful detention of a U.S. national abroad. The executive order put the machine in place to implement the Levinson Act.  

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  1. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Wholeheartedly agree! We should take the gloves off against regimes that kidnap Americans.

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  2. Avatar photo
    JohnD

    Thanks for this important article. Dispatch members should also be aware that there is another American in a Russian prison who has not (inexplicably) been designated as wrongfully detained. Marc Fogal was a teacher at the Anglo American school in Moscow. About 1 1/2 years ago he was detained entering the Moscow airport for what would have been his 10th and final year of teaching at the school and found to have about 10 grams of medical marijuana in his possession. He was subsequently sentenced to 13 years in prison. My daughter was a coworker and friend of Marc’s and we are all dumbstruck that a) he has not been designated as wrongfully detained and b) the media has been nearly silent on his situation. His crime is very similar to Brittany Griner’s. Surely a school teacher is as important as a celebrity basketball player!

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    1. Andy

      Was Griner considered wrongfully detained because Russia weaponized its case against her? In my understanding she did break Russian law. How would a generic Russian found to have marijuana on him be treated? Clearly, flying with weed, or any drug, to any country is about as dumb as can be, and it is frustrating that US resources need to be used to solve these situations, but I do become more sympathetic when trumped up charges are involved. I'm guessing that at the end of the day it's a combination of individual Americans (in the weed cases) being exceptionally stupid and Russia jumping at a chance to stick a finger in the US's eye.

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      1. Avatar photo
        JohnD

        It is my understanding that the sentence of Fogal was quite out of line with what any foreign traveler might expect. Historically he or she would, at worse be put in a plane and sent home. This was disproportionate because Russia is deliberately trying to be provocative and provoke a disproportionate response. But it was the media that decided that the Griner story was more newsworthy than Marc’s case, and for that we are all guilty. Griner’s celebrity status saved her, while Fogal is ‘just a teacher’ and thus makes for a less compelling case.

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    Pmgetson

    Russians are hardball players. Put 20 , no 100 Russians in jail here and then negotiate with them. Remember “ Chicago rules”.

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    1. Avatar photo
      JohnD

      The problem is the Russians won’t care and don’t care about their citizens. Please see my earlier post about Marc Fogel, and tell your friends about his situation.

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