In a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange on Thursday, the U.S. let Russia's most wanted arms dealer, Viktor Bout, go free in exchange for Brittney Griner, a WNBA star from Houston.
During a time when tensions were high over Ukraine, the swap helped President Joe Biden reach one of his top goals. However, it came at a high cost and left an American prisoner in Russia for almost four years.
The deal, which was the second of its kind with Russia in the past eight months, led to the release of the most important American being held abroad. Griner has won two gold medals at the Olympics. Her months-long jail time on drug charges brought more attention than ever before to the number of people who were wrongfully jailed.
Biden's decision to let out a Russian criminal who was once called "the Merchant of Death" showed how much pressure his administration was under to get Griner home, especially since her criminal case just ended and she was sent to a prison colony. U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations confirmed the swap.
They were not allowed to talk about the deal in public before it was announced by the White House, so they spoke on the condition of anonymity. After months of difficult talks, Russian and U.S. officials have shown cautious optimism in recent weeks. Vice President Joe Biden said in November that he hoped Russia would make a deal now that the midterm elections were over.
Last week, a top Russian official said that a deal could be made before the end of the year. Even so, the fact that the deal was a one-for-one swap was surprising because U.S. officials had been saying for months that they wanted to bring home both Griner and Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive who has been jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government say are false.
The U.S. freed Bout, a former lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Army, because the Justice Department said he was one of the most prolific arms dealers in the world. Bout was serving a 25-year sentence for a plot to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of weapons that U.S. officials said were going to be used against Americans. This plot was the basis for a Hollywood movie.
The hiphop community must be rejoicing right now.
The hip-hop community was shocked that WNBA player Brittney Griner was given a nine-year prison sentence in Russia for having drugs.
NBC News says that Griner's sentence was given in a Moscow courtroom on Thursday, August 4. Judge Anna Sotnikova gave the basketball star a nine-year sentence for drug possession and smuggling after he pleaded guilty last month. The charges came about when Griner was stopped at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in February with cannabis oil in her luggage. The maximum sentence for the charges is 10 years.
Many renowned artists took to their social media to share their opinions.
