There are plenty of idiot Americans who travel abroad and unknowingly, negligently, or intentional do things illegal in other countries that might be minor crimes or not crimes at all here in the USA.
If charges against an American are fabricated for pure political purposes, that's one issue. However, in this case, she pled guilty and it looks (from news sources) that she did violate a Russian law.
If the punishment Russia applies for this crime is more severe that what the USA would apply, that's unfortunate, but not something we can change.
If human rights violations are being committed and/or she's getting a greater punishment for the crime than a Russian who might commit the same crime, that's a problem. The fact that a Russian prison is not as comfy as an American one is not in and of itself a human rights violation.
I'm not in favor of a prisoner exchange unless we send over some Russian in an American prison for minor drug related crime(s) or some other crime(s) that would warrant minimal imprisonment or just a fine in Russia. We should NOT be exchanging a big time bad actor for this woman. Nor should we be paying any government funds for her release. Perhaps we could negotiate a reduced sentence or release on her behalf for a lump sum that comes out of her bank account, since she appears to have committed to offense and pled guilty to it?
I don't like her or her history of violence here, but that's not relevant to whether she is being mistreated or whether we might negotiate a FAIR resolution. Her race, sexual orientation, gender pronoun, etc... makes no difference to my analysis and should NOT factor into analyzing or attempting to resolve the situation.
Someone who has worked and repeatedly visited and lived in Russia or any other country damn well better make sure they know what the laws are before doing anything that might be remotely questionable.
I wonder how many minor drug traffickers, users, etc.. are sitting in shit holes in Asia, South America or Africa right now whose names have never been spoken in the news and are unimportant/unknown to the peeps in DC. If my ass was in Russia for the crimes relevant to this case, it's highly likely I'd be in prison for the full term, because I don't have celebs, CEO's or politicians I know who could raise hell in DC on my behalf.
Whatever the course, I'm for fair treatment of this case as any other similar case involving an American imprisoned in bad conditions overseas for what we perceive as minor crimes, and I am cool with a negotiated swap if the person we send to Russia is someone being held over here for crime(s) of analogous severity and/or sentencing.
(rant over)