On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denied the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia’s claims that they had mediated the prisoner exchange of American basketball player Brittney Griner and Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout.
“The only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States (US) and Russia, and there was no mediation involved,” she affirmed during a press conference on Thursday. That being said, she expressed gratitude to the UAE for “facilitating the use of their territory for the exchange to take place.”
WATCH: #BNNUS Reports
— Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (@gchahal) December 8, 2022
KJP (@PressSec) said bringing @brittneygriner was the result of months of hard work by US Govt, @WhiteHouse, @StateDept & the administration that worked tirelessly & relentlessly," but fails to mention UAE President @MohamedBinZayed or Saudi Crown Prince. pic.twitter.com/XKToD2iznG
Similarly, during a background press call on Thursday, a senior Biden administration official noted that “we do engage with a wide range of countries so that the Russians hear from a wide range of sources about our commitment to resolving these and what a priority that is,” without naming the UAE or Saudi Arabia.
32-year-old Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested at the Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow on 17 February for possessing two vape cartridges containing less than a gram of cannabis oil, which is illegal in Russia. She was sentenced to nine years in prison at a penal colony on 4 August on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs.
Brittney’s coming home. pic.twitter.com/Yg4t08Pqgc
— President Biden (@POTUS) December 9, 2022
In a statement, President Joe Biden said, “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.”
Adding that it took “painstaking and intense negotiations” to make it happen, he revealed Griner “is in good spirits.”
“The fact remains that she’s lost months of her life, experienced a needless trauma, and she deserves space, privacy, and time with her loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrongfully detained,” he stressed.
Today, Brittney Griner’s wrongful detention in Russia finally ends and she is on her way home to be reunited with her family. Her release is the product of painstaking negotiations and @POTUS’ commitment to bring home every U.S. citizen wrongfully detained anywhere in the world.
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) December 8, 2022
He also noted that Washington had not “forgotten about Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for years.” He noted that Whelan’s family must be experiencing “mixed emotions today.”
Whelan, a retired US marine, was arrested in Russia in 2018 on trumped-up charges of espionage. He was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
“This was not a choice of which American to bring home. Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” he remarked. In July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed that they had “put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate” the release of Griner and Whelan.
Grateful for the long-overdue release of Brittney Griner today from Russian custody. Kudos to @POTUS and his administration for the difficult diplomatic work involved to make it happen. We’re looking forward to having Brittney back home. https://t.co/G5yKliRoxd
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 8, 2022
An anonymous Biden administration official told CNN that they were planning to exchange a convicted Russian arms trafficker, Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence, for the two Americans.
However, the official disclosed that “it was a choice between bringing home one particular American — Brittney Griner — or bringing home none,” and that President Biden made the “difficult” decision to approve it.
Likewise, Blinken said, “Despite our ceaseless efforts, the Russian Government has not yet been willing to bring a long overdue end to his wrongful detention.”
Earlier this year were grateful for the release of seven Americans wrongfully detained in Venezuela. Today we celebrate the release of Brittney Griner.
— Rep. Val Demings (@RepValDemings) December 8, 2022
Make no mistake, we will not stop until we bring home Paul Whelan and all other Americans who have been unjustly detained.
Nevertheless, Whelan’s family has welcomed Griner’s release. His brother David told The New York Times, “The Biden administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen.”
However, in a phone interview with CNN, Paul said, “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,” he affirmed, adding, “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”
He noted that US officials had told him that “things were moving in the right direction, and that the governments were negotiating and that something would happen fairly soon.” Saying that “this is a precarious situation that needs to be resolved quickly,” he stressed, “My bags are packed. I’m ready to go home. I just need an airplane to come and get me.”
After months of wrongful detention in Russia, Brittney Griner is on her way home to her wife Cherelle and her other loved ones. We will not cease in our efforts until Paul Whelan is back with his family, too.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 8, 2022
On Thursday, Biden stressed that the government was “not giving up” to “keep negotiating in good faith for Paul’s release.” He also called on Russia “to ensure that Paul’s health and humane treatment are maintained until we are able to bring him home.”
“I don’t want any American to sit wrongfully detained one extra day if we can bring that person home,” he affirmed.
However, many Republicans have criticised the Biden administration for swapping a dangerous criminal for a US citizen. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) opined that the release of Griner “shouldn’t have come at the cost of releasing one of the world’s worst arms dealers and creating a dangerous precedent for our enemies: detain Americans and Democrats will agree to set your worst killers free.”
If @POTUS is going to release a guy convicted of providing aid to a terrorist organization & conspiring to kill American citizens, he should have at least gotten BOTH Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan in return.
— Office of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (@RepMalliotakis) December 8, 2022
A U.S. Marine is left behind in another bad deal made by Biden.
Likewise, House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) argued that Bout’s release was a “gift to Vladimir Putin.”
“He was convicted of conspiring to kill American law enforcement,” he stressed, adding, “Leaving Paul Whelan behind for this is unconscionable.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ), too, affirmed that “we cannot ignore that releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision.”
Nevertheless, the unnamed US official underlined that Bout was released only after a thorough assessment of whether he would be a threat to US national security.
“Nothing can remove the stigma of his guilty conviction in the US justice system where I would emphasize he received due process of law, access to counsel and a whole host of other rights and protections that Brittney was appallingly denied in the sham proceedings she faced in Russia,” he affirmed.
⚡️ On December 8, 2022, the swap of Russian citizen Viktor Bout for US citizen Brittney Griner was successfully completed at the Abu Dhabi Airport.
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) December 8, 2022
The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland.
🔗 https://t.co/VJiA3Aefwk pic.twitter.com/MvjJjaEwWX
The Russian Foreign Ministry revealed that Moscow had been negotiating Bout’s release “for a long time.”
“Washington was categorically refusing to engage in dialogue on putting the Russian national on the exchange scheme. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation continued to actively work towards the release of our fellow countryman,” it noted.
Bout, also known as the “merchant of death,” was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a US sting operation. A Thailand court charged him with illegally supplying arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which is labelled as a terrorist organisation by the US. He was extradited to the US in 2010 and sentenced to 25 years in prison and handed a $15 million fine in April 2012.