Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov said today that there’s more movement for a prisoner swap to get 32-year-old WNBA star Brittney Griner from a Russian penal colony and possibly 52-year-old former Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned for spying since 2018. President Joe Biden, busy prosecuting his proxy war against the Kremlin using Ukrainian troops, has made discussions to get Griner out next to impossible. Talk recently about moving the Ukraine War to the peace table has improved Brittney’s chances of getting out of prison. Griner was arrested Feb. 17 in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport en rout to playing for the Russian women’s basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg. Airport authorities four cannabis laced vape-cartridges in Brittney’s luggage. When she went to trial in Moscow July 1, Birttney’s Russian attorneys said he accidentally put vape-cartridges in her luggage.
Griner offered evidence in her trial that the State of Arizona issued her a medical marijuana to deal with basketball-related injuries, proving Aug. 4 at her conviction that her cannabis possession was no accident. U.S. officials, including Biden, 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 45-year-old National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan all say Brittney was “wrongfully detained” antagonizing Russian authorities. Kremlin Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Brittney was not wrongfully detained under strict Russian drug laws. Today’s blackout on Biden’s national security team suggests that something, as Rybakov said, could be improving. Former New Mexico Gov. and U.N. Amb. Bill Richardson, 75, said he thought Brittney could be out by year’s end. Richardson has no secret information only a hunch based on freeing foreign prisoners in the past.
No one knows the deal to get Brittney and Paul Whelan out of Russian prison but Richardson suggested it could be a two-for-two swap, using convicted Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout and some other unnamed Russian prisoner. When Russian prisoner former Marine Trevor Reed was released in April in another prisoner swap, Biden hoped that things would go as well for Griner. But months of fighting the Kremlin in a bloody proxy war in Ukraine soured Putin on cutting a deal with Biden. Recent talk of ending the conflict this week by 63-year-old Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley might have helped Griner’s chances of getting out of a Russian penal colony. Talk of a new two-for-two prisoner swap renewed hopes that something could get done soon. Richardson has been quietly working behind the scenes to help pull of the long-awaited prisoner deal.
Biden’s hostile rhetoric toward Putin at the G20 in Bali, Indonesia didn’t help Brittney’s chances of seeing the light of day. “We have yet to arrive at a common denominator, but there is no doubt that Viktor Bout is among those discussed,” said Rybakov, reported in Russia’s Interfax News Agency. “We are definitely counting on a positive outcome,” Rybakov said, raising new hope for Griner’s release. Biden may have secretly promised Putin that in addition to another prisoner added into the deal, the Ukraine War may come to a close. Miley was emphatic that the war has no military solution and both parties should jump at the chance for a political solution. Whatever it takes to make it happen, it’s been an agonizing process for Griner’s wife Cherelle, who’s been waiting since Feb. 17 to get her back. Moving the Ukraine War to the peace table would go a long way in making it happen.
No question that the Ukraine War stalled any concrete talks to get Griner or Whelan out of Russian prisons. Statesmen like Richardson can only do so much when the circumstances don’t warrant negotiations. Biden can’t tell Ukraine’s 44-yar-old President Volodymyr Zelensky that he’s still trying to crush the Russian military and expect Putin to play ball. If Putin sees some concrete steps to end the Ukraine War, he’ll be more likely to negotiate with his American counterparts. When Reed got out in April, it was before 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told an audience in Ramstein, Germany that the aim of the Ukraine Wars was to degrade the Russian military to the point it could no longer wage war. If that’s not a declaration of war, then what its? Biden and Aiustin made the war personal, not defending Ukraine but to topple the Russian Federation.
Rybakov’s statements today suggests that there’s movement on a prisoner swap to get Brittney out of prison behind the scenes. White House officials have been told no longer to call Brittney “wrongfully detained,” to wait-and-see whether a new two-for-two prisoner swap does the trick. Secret talk behind the scenes about de-escalating the Ukraine War may have moved the prisoner swap forward. Why would Putin strike any deal with the U.S. while Biden supplies Ukraine unlimited cash-and-arms to destroy the Russian military. If Americans learned anything from Britney’s ordeal, when you travel to countries like Russia don’t trying to flout their drug laws. Weed may be no big deal in America but it’s not the Russian Federation. Brittney’s judge wanted to hear that she didn’t understand strict Russian drug laws. Showing there’s positive movement, White House officials have buttoned up.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
