President Joe Biden announced the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner and confirmed the U.S. is exchanging Griner for arms trafficker Viktor Bout, otherwise known as the “Merchant of Death.”
During the WNBA offseason, Brittney Griner traveled to Russia to play with her team, UMMC Ekaterinburg. On February 17, she was detained after Russian authorities accused her of carrying an illicit drug in her luggage at an airport near Moscow.
In August, Griner was sentenced to 9 years in prison for possession of vape cartridges that contained hash oil. She was recently sent to a penal colony 300 miles outside of Moscow.
“Moments ago, standing together with her wife, Cherelle, in the Oval Office, I spoke with Brittney Griner,” President Biden said from the White House. “She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home after months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances.”
A U.S. official said Griner and Bout walked past each other on the tarmac as they were traded. She is arriving at a medical facility in San Antonio for medical and psychological evaluation.
Griner wasn’t the only American hostage in Russia.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, has been a prisoner in Russia since 2018 due to unproven charges of espionage. With hopes of a swift return, his family heard the terrible news that the Biden Administration did not include Whelan in the deal.
David Whelan, Paul’s brother, described the news as “a disappointment for us. And a catastrophe for Paul.” But, he said, “the Biden administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen.”
Many Conservatives expressed their true feelings on the matter on Twitter.
Benny Johnson, host of The Benny Show on Newsmax, tweeted, “Meet Brittney Griner & Marine Paul Whelan. Both Americans. Both were convicted in Russian courts on dubious charges. Both serving multi-year sentences in Russian prison. Brittney hates America. Paul served America. Guess Which one Biden traded a terrorist for free?”
“Don’t expect #BrittneyGriner to start singing the national anthem. Her refusal to do so–indeed her anti-American stance in general–is why Biden picked her over the Marine to come home. Biden, like Obama, values anti-Americanism over traditional American patriotism,” political commentator and author of several New York Times bestsellers, Dinesh D’Souza, tweeted.
The trade between a WNBA star and someone who’s known as the “Merchant of Death” has left many unsettled.
Max Boot is a Washington Post columnist and said Biden paid a “disturbingly high price” for Griner.
While the columnist acknowledged her safety and return home, he insisted that freeing Viktor Bout, who was imprisoned for conspiring to kill Americans, was a big risk.
He also said, “Besides setting free a dangerous international criminal known as the ‘merchant of death,’ the deal sent a message to the entire world that the United States remains in the business of paying off hostage-takers. That can only encourage more unlawful detentions of Americans.”
Boot also addressed concerns about the future actions of Bout and what it means for the Russian-Ukraine war.
“Although it’s been 12 years since Bout was arrested in Thailand and extradited to the United States, he might still have smuggling networks that could be of use to Putin in waging the war in Ukraine.”
Despite being under much controversy, Biden assured the nation that “this was not a choice of which American to bring home.”
“Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We are never giving up,” he added.
