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Since the news of her freedom, there have been questions over why Brittney Griner was released and how the United States was able to order her freedom from Russia.
Griner is a professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women’s National Basketball Association. She was detained on February 17, 2022 at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, after Federal Customs Service agents found vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil in her luggage and arrested her on smuggling charges. A court in Russia found her guilty on August 4, 2022, and she was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay 1 million rubies, which is around $16,301 in the United States. Since her arrest, Griner’s family, friends and celebrities have demanded her release.
“We all know Russia doesn’t care about what Brittney Griner did,” Trevor Noah said in an episode of The Daily Show, calling Griner’s charges “bullshit.” He continued, “This is the same country that’s breaking every human rights law on the planet, but they’re like, ‘That woman has [a] vape cartridge. She’s [a] real criminal…Now if we had more time, we could talk about how this could have been avoided if the WNBA paid their stars enough so they didn’t have to go and play in Russia in the offseason to make money.”
Nine months after her arrest, Griner was released from prison in Russia on December 5, 2022. So why was Brittney Griner released and where is she now? Read on for what we know about how Brittney Griner was released and the next Russian prisoner the United States is fighting to free.
Why was Brittney Griner released?
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Why was Brittney Griner released? Griner was on December 8, 2022, in a one-for-one prisoner swap for international arms dealer, Viktor Bout, between Russia and the United States, according to CBS News. The swap took place on December 8 in the United Arab Emirates. The agreement for the trade was reached a week before. Under the agreement, United States President Joe Biden ordered for Bout to be freed and returned to Russia. He also signed a commutation order cutting short Bout’s 25-year federal prison sentence.
According to standard procedure for freed United States Prisoners, Griner is expected to undergo a medical evaluation upon her release. “She’s safe. She’s on a plane,” President Biden said at a press conference from the White House on December 8. “She’s on her way home. After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along. This is a day we’ve worked toward for a long time. We never stopped pushing for her release.” Biden also confirmed that he spoke to Griner on the phone from the Oval Office that morning, along with her wife, Cherelle Griner, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
At the press conference, President Biden told reporters that he was “glad to be able to say Brittney is in good spirits” and she was looking forward to return home. He also dismissed the “show trial in Russia” and confirmed that Griner “didn’t ask for special treatment” while she was in prison. Griner’s wife, Cherelle, also spoke at the press conference and thanked President Biden and his administration for freeing her spouse. “So over the last nine months, you all have been so privy to one of the darkest moments of my life, and so today I am just standing here overwhelmed with emotions, but the most important emotion I have right now is just sincere gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration,” she said. She continued, “There’s been so many hands involved, and so I’d like to take a moment to just specifically mention a few.”
She added, “Today my family is whole, but as you all are aware, there’s so many other families who aren’t whole…Thank you everybody for your support, and today’s just a happy day for me and my family, so I’m gonna smile right now.”
Who is Viktor Bout?
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Who is Viktor Bout? Bout is a Russian arms dealer who arrested in a United States sting operation on March 6, 2008, in Thailand on terrorism charges by the Royal Thai Police in cooperation with United States authorities and the International Police Organization. Bout was accused of intending to sell arms to a United States Drug Enforcement Administration informer, who pretended to represent of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and told Bout the arms would be used against United States forces in Colombia. Bout, who was extradited from Thailand in August 2010, was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court November 2, 2011. He was convicted on charges of conspiracy to kill United States citizens and officials, the delivery of anti-aircraft missiles and providing aid to a terrorist organization, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was held at the United States Penitentiary, Marion, near Marion, Illinois, from June 2012 to December 2022 before he was release in a prisoner swap with Brittney Griner.
Why was Brittney Griner arrested?
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Why was Brittney Griner arrested? Griner was arrested on smuggling charges in Russia on February 17, 2022. She was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, after Federal Customs Service agents found vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil in her luggage. Griner had been prescribed medicinal cannabis, which is illegal in Russia, in Arizona, where she played for the WNBA team, Phoenix Mercury.
Griner’s trial started in Russia on July 1, 2022. She pled guilty on the second day of her trial on July 7, 2022. “But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law,” she said. The court found Griner guilty on August 4, 2022, and sentenced her to nine years in prison. They also fined her 1 million rubies, which is around $16,301 in the United States. She was transferred to a penal colony in Russia in November 2022.
Before her release on December 8, 2022, Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, told Gayle King on CBS Mornings about how the situation “felt like a movie.” “It terrifies me, because when you watch movies, sometimes those situations don’t end well,” she said. “Sometimes they never get their person back.” She continued, “In no world did I ever [think] our president and a foreign nation’s president would be sitting down having to discuss the freedom of my wife. nd so to me, as much as everybody’s telling me a different definition of what BG is, it feels to me as if she’s a hostage.”
She added, “I’m sitting there like, ‘Do we get her back? Do I ever get to see my wife again? Like, what happens [next]?’ The fact that everything is so unprecedented and everything is, like, changeable, I think is a really good word. I feel like every day I’m hearing something new, and so it’s just, it’s terrifying.”
Cherelle also urged the United States government at the time to help release Griner. “You say she’s top priority, but I wanna see it, and I feel like to see it would be me seeing BG on U.S. soil,” Cherelle said. “BG would wholeheartedly love to not go overseas. She has only had one Thanksgiving in the States in nine years since she’s been pro, and she misses all that stuff. Just because, you know, she can’t make enough money in the WNBA, like, to sustain her life.”
Who is Paul Whelan?
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Who is Paul Whelan? At the press conference for Brittney Griner’s release, President Joe Biden also commented on Paul Whelan, a retired United States marine who was arrested in Russia on December 28, 2018, on accusations of espionage and involvement in an intelligence operation, which the United States has called false. He was convicted on espionage charges on July 15, 2020, and sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia. “We’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan,” President Biden said, adding that “we will never give up” on securing Whelan’s release. United States officials also told reporters at the conference that Russia declined their request to releae both Griner and Whelan in exchange for Bout, with one official saying that the United States had “a choice between bringing home one particular American — Brittney Griner — or bringing home none.”
President Biden also confirmed to reporters that the swap was “not a choice of which American to bring home.” He continued, “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 will never give up.”
In an interview with CNN on December 8, Whelan said he was happy for Griner’s release but “disappointed” he also wasn’t freed. “I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred,” Whelan said from a penal colony in a remote part of Russia where he is held. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.” He continued, “I was led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon.” He also told CNN he was surprised to not be included in the swap.
Whelan also told CNN that he believes the Russian government views him differently than Griner or Trevor Reed, a United States Marine Corps veteran who was arrested for alleged violence against a Russian police officer in 2019 and released in 2022 in a one-for-one prisoner swap with Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of drug smuggling. “They’ve put me at a level higher than what they did with Trevor and Brittney,” Whelan said. “That raises a lot of concerns because none of it is true. And they’re trying to get out of United States, what the United States may not be able to provide, but this is basically political extortion.” He continued, “They’ve always considered me to be at a higher level than other criminals of my sort and for whatever reason, I’m treated differently than another individual here from a Western country that’s also on a charge of espionage. So even though we’re both here for espionage, I’m treated much differently than he is, and my treatment is also much different than others held for espionage at other prisons.”
Whelan also told CNN that he hopes President Joe Biden “would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point.” He continued, “I would say that if a message could go to President Biden, that this is a precarious situation that needs to be resolved quickly. My bags are packed. I’m ready to go home. I just need an airplane to come and get me.”
Whelan also confirmed that he had communicated with a United States official earlier the day Griner was released about his situation, though he had yet to speak to President Biden directly. “I think that message really needs to go to people like the president so they understand personally what I’m dealing with and what we deal with in these foreign prisons and under these circumstances,” he said. “It’s quite obvious that I’m being held hostage.”
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, also told CNN on December 8 that United States is “not back to square one” in its negotiations for Whelan’s release.“We have been in active discussions with the Russians on Mr. Whelan’s case for a very, very long time. Certainly those conversations accelerated in recent months and I can assure you that we are going to stay at those active discussions going forward,” he said.
Whelan’s brother, David, also told CNN on December 8 that their family is “devastated” by the news that Whelan won’t be released. “It’s a great day for the families of the wrongfully detained and we feel wonderful for them,” he said“But we do worry about what’s in Paul’s future. I think it’s become clear that the US doesn’t have any concessions that the Russian government wants for Paul. So I’m not really sure what the future holds.”
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