The United States has offered a prisoner exchange to return the WNBA player and Paul Whelan back to the United States, according to CNN. The Associated Press is reporting that Vice President Biden would be open to such an agreement.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Biden administration has made a deal with Russia to send Brittney Griner, a WNBA basketball player from Houston facing drug accusations, and Paul Whelan, another American jailed in Russia, home.
For the sake of Viktor Bout, CNN reports that Russia will free Griner and Whelan from U.S. prisons as part of a deal. On the basis of previous talks between the United States and Russia, a senior administration official tells a news outlet that the deal has the full support of Vice President Joe Biden and is expected to be a success.
Since February, Griner has been detained for drug possession. Her family has pleaded with the White House on numerous occasions to gain her release, even if it means exchanging prisoners for her. Russian authorities have been detaining Whelan since 2018.
Blinken said he plans to raise the issue of Whelan and Griner’s release with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the near future. Neither side has met since Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
The Russian prisoner exchange that freed Texas native and ex-Marine Trevor Reed from a Russian jail earlier this year also included other Texas residents and natives. Convicted Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year term, was traded for Reed.
Prisoner exchanges have been typically opposed by the US State Department, stating that it encourages countries to detain American citizens as bargaining chips.
This “danger to the safety of everyone who travels, works and lives overseas” is the Department of State’s statement at a news briefing in June, said spokesperson Ned Price.
When Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison for agreeing to sell millions of dollars in weapons to a Colombian terrorist group, Russia demanded his release for a long time.
WNBA players and executives, Texas legislators, and civil and human rights groups have all called for Griner’s release, bringing national attention to her cause.
When customs officers discovered two cannabis vape cartridges in Griner’s luggage at a Moscow airport, they detained her. When the WNBA player testified in Russia earlier this week, she claimed to have been unaware of her rights, according to the Houston Chronicle. Griner has admitted her guilt, but she told the Chronicle on Wednesday that she had packed the cannabis oil in a hurry and hadn’t intended to bring it with her. For pain and inflammation caused by work-related ailments, a doctor had medicated her with cannabis oil.
Homophobic persecution under President Vladimir Putin’s administration has left Griner, a Black and homosexual woman, in a society that is hostile to her identity. The United States’ efforts to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s on-going invasion have complicated Griner’s incarceration even further.
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