President Biden’s eagerness for a prisoner swap with Russia will lead to clumsy diplomacy that could encourage other arrests of Americans for use as bait by bad actors seeking similar exchanges. It would be a bad deal even if the Kremlin ends up agreeing to take back a convicted Russian arms dealer as part of the trade for a basketball star.

The reported swap would release an arms dealer known as the “merchant of death” in exchange for the WNBA’s Brittney Griner and other wrongfully imprisoned Americans. As the Kremlin has not yet commented, the price for releasing the Americans could rise further.