Russia has freed WNBA star Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. politics kprc2 click2houston brittneygriner htx
Even so, the fact that the deal was a one-for-one swap was a surprise given that U.S. officials had for months expressed their determination to bring home both Griner anda Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless.
“We didn’t want to lose the opportunity today to secure the release of one of them," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.but also disappointed for his family. He credited the White House with giving the Whelan family advance notice and said he did not fault officials for making the deal. Bout was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans. Biden issued an executive grant of clemency to free the arms dealer from a federal prison in Illinois to effect the prisoner swap.
The U.S.-Russia exchange was carried out despite deteriorating relations between the powers prompted by Moscow’s war against Ukraine. The White House said that Kyiv was provided assurances that the terms were limited to the prisoner swap and would not impact U.S. support for Ukraine's defense. The public overture drew a rebuke from the Russians, who said they preferred to resolve such cases in private, and carried the risk of weakening the U.S. government's negotiating hand for this and future deals by making the administration appear desperate. But the announcement also communicated to the public that Biden was doing what he could and to ensure pressure on the Russians.
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