(AmericanProsperity.com) – The United States has finally managed to negotiate the release of basketball player Brittney Griner from a Russian prison, exchanging the convicted drug trafficker for a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the US.
Why the US was able to bring home Brittney Griner but not Paul Whelan https://t.co/6JANzSrh81 pic.twitter.com/QQ1T5jFuOd
— The Hill (@thehill) December 8, 2022
On February 17, Griner, a WNBA star who played for a Russian team during the off-season, was arrested at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport for possession of cannabis vape cartridges. A doctor in Arizona prescribed the drug to Griner, but Russian law doesn’t recognize medicinal marijuana, so in August, a court convicted her of drug trafficking and sentenced her to nine years in prison.
Meanwhile, former US Marine Paul Whelan has been in a Russian high-security prison since 2018 after security police arrested him and allegedly found a USB drive containing classified information. A court sentenced him to 16 years, and the Kremlin holds him in reportedly “grim” conditions.
On November 8, the administration announced Russia was exchanging Griner for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.” A federal court sentenced Bout to 25 years at the Marion, IL, federal penitentiary for a plot to ship anti-aircraft missiles to a communist terror group in Colombia. He’s also known to have trafficked weapons to Afghanistan, Liberia and other war-torn countries. Compared to Bout, Griner is a very small fish — and many Republican lawmakers are now questioning why the US didn’t insist that Russia include Whelan in the exchange.
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