Brittney Griner Freed, But at a Terrible Price
Griner was exchanged for one of the world’s most infamous arms dealers: Russia’s “Merchant of Death” Viktor Bout.
Brittney Griner spent Thanksgiving in a Russian penal colony.
For Griner, who was detained in Moscow on a drug charge one week before Russia invaded Ukraine, the outlook had perhaps never looked darker. There was one tiny ray of hope, however.
“We haven’t found common ground yet, but, undoubtedly, Viktor Bout is among those being discussed, and obviously we are hoping for a positive result,” Putin’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian news agencies in mid-November. “The Americans are showing certain activity and we are working on this through appropriate channels.”
The U.S. quickly tamped down such talk.
“We are not going to comment on the specifics of any proposals other than to say that we have made a substantial offer that the Russian Federation has consistently failed to negotiate in good faith,” said U.S. officials in a terse response. “The U.S. Government has continued to follow up on that offer and propose alternative potential ways forward with the Russian government.”
“The Russian government’s failure to seriously negotiate on these issues in the established channel, or any other channel for that…