Russia Celebrates Griner Prisoner Swap as 'a Capitulation by America'
In volleys of chortling heard ’round the world, Russia mocked America for the Biden administration’s decision to trade a basketball player for an arms dealer.
On Thursday, WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was arrested for carrying drugs in a Moscow airport in February, was traded for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had been convicted in 2011 of trying to kill American citizens through arms deals that included working with Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The one-for-one deal meant that ex-Marine Paul Whelan remains a prisoner in Russia. That country said Whelan was jailed for being a spy, a claim he has denied.
Russian TV celebrity Vladimir Soloviev called the swap “a tremendous victory,” according to CBS.
“The Russian intelligence agencies, alongside the Foreign Ministry, have carried out a stunning operation and brought home a man who did not plead guilty once, who was wrongly convicted and slandered but did not betray his homeland,” Soloviev said.
Wowwww Russian media BRUTALLY mock the U.S. for trading Brittany Griner for Viktor Bout. And really, are they wrong?
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) December 9, 2022
“It is a capitulation by America,” Russian legislator Maria Butina said, according to Reuters. “It shows that Russia doesn’t abandon its own while America has shown its defeat.”
‘The fact that Russia pushed through the exchange of Bout, whom America fundamentally did not want to give away for many years, right now means that, like in The Godfather, we ‘made them an offer that cannot be refused,'” Butina wrote on Telegram, according to the Daily Mail.
“This is a position of strength, comrades.”
Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state-funded RT Channel, wrote on her Telegram account that America got what it wanted.
“Between a hero spy, a decorated Marine who suffered for service to the Fatherland, and a drug-addicted black lesbian who suffered for vaping hashish, the modern American voter chooses the obvious,” she wrote, according to CBS.
Biden has been in office for 688 days. Russian TV mocked the Brittney Griner exchange. They considered it a victory that the US chose a celebrity over a Marine and that it shows where our values are. Biden is such an epic failure!
— Diane (@gsohomes) December 9, 2022
The difference between the American who was freed and the one who was not was fodder for another Russian commentator, according to Fox News.
The commentator, whose name was not given, said Whelan’s “first problem is that he is white. His second problem is he is a man. His third problem: He is a heterosexual. This is not something that can be forgiven today. It’s just a catastrophe. Yes, here Griner beats him in every aspect.”
While Russians gloated, former President Donald Trump fumed on his Truth Social platform.
“What kind of a deal is it to swap Brittney Griner, a basketball player who openly hates our Country, for the man known as ‘The Merchant of Death,’ who is one of the biggest arms dealers anywhere in the World, and responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and horrific injuries?
“Why wasn’t former Marine Paul Whelan included in this totally one-sided transaction? He would have been let out for the asking. What a stupid and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA!!!” Trump wrote.
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