The Biden administration was excited Thursday to announce that it had reached a deal with Russia to free WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner from a Russian jail, but critics on social media blasted Biden for giving up a dangerous Russian arms dealer in exchange for a mere basketball player and leaving a U.S. Marine languishing in a Russian jail on top of it.
Griner was arrested in February in a Moscow airport and charged with drug trafficking for having cannabis-infused vape cartridges in her luggage as she was on her way out of the country. By August she was convicted of the charges and sentenced to 9-1/2 years in a Russian prison.
A month ago, she was moved to a harsh Russian forced labor camp where Russian authorities expected her to serve the rest of her nine-years in prison.
The Biden administration claimed throughout this year that it was making overtures to the Russians and trying to get Griner free from her sentence. Finally, after months of inaction, a deal was struck.
But that deal is spurring much criticism since the Russians got a dangerous arms dealer back while all America got was a basketball player. Worse, the prisoner swap notably left behind Paul Whelan, an American and former Marine jailed in Russia in 2018 under purported “espionage” charges. Whelan was sentenced to 16 years.
Twitter exploded with condemnation of the Biden administration for this lopsided prisoner exchange and for leaving a Marine behind while saving a mere basketball player:
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