Viktor Bout, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan
Dear Commons Community,
The Biden administration has offered to free the imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to secure the release of Brittney Griner and Paul N. Whelan, two Americans imprisoned in Russia who the State Department says were wrongfully detained. As reported by The New York Times and CNN.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said yesterday that the United States had “put a substantial proposal on the table” and that he would soon press for the Americans’ return in his first conversation with his Russian counterpart since Russia invaded Ukraine five months ago.
Mr. Blinken’s comments represented the first time that the United States had confirmed that it had made a formal proposal to persuade Russia to release Ms. Griner, an American basketball star who has been detained for months on drug charges, and Mr. Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was sentenced in Russia in 2020 to 16 years in prison on espionage charges.
The notion of trading Ms. Griner for Mr. Bout surfaced in Russian news media several weeks ago. U.S. officials would not publicly discuss the idea at the time and stressed their concern about potentially incentivizing the detention of Americans abroad by foreign actors looking to win concessions.
Yesterday, however, Mr. Blinken said the two countries had “communicated repeatedly and directly” about the proposal, though he would not provide details or describe the Russian response, saying he did not want to endanger sensitive negotiations with Moscow.
The person briefed on the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic negotiations, said the United States offered in June to trade Mr. Bout for Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan, and that President Biden — who has been under growing political pressure to free the Americans — backed the offer. The offer was first reported by CNN.
Mr. Bout, who is known as the “Merchant of Death,” is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for conspiring to sell weapons to people who said they planned to kill Americans. The Kremlin has demanded his release for years.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s comments represented the first time the U.S. had confirmed that it had made a formal proposal to persuade Russia to release Ms. Griner.
Speaking at the State Department, Mr. Blinken said he expected to talk with Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, in the coming days and would urge him to accept the proposal. The two men last spoke in January at a meeting in Geneva, weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 led to a near-total shutdown of American diplomacy with Russia. Mr. Blinken avoided so much as shaking Mr. Lavrov’s hand at a Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting in Bali earlier this month.
Mr. Biden has been under pressure to secure the freedom of Ms. Griner in particular, whose wife, Cherelle, and several Democratic-aligned political groups have publicly urged him to strike a deal to win her release. Mr. Biden spoke to Cherelle Griner this month.
In mid-July, W.N.B.A. players took the court at their All-Star Game wearing jerseys bearing Ms. Griner’s number, 42. And on Tuesday, NBC News aired an interview with Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine freed from a Russian prison in April after three years of detention, in which he said the White House was “not doing enough” to free Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan.
William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, addressed talk of a potential prisoner swap during an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum last week.
“These are awful and shameful steps to hold American citizens for political leverage,” Mr. Burns said. “The Russians are quite coldblooded about this right now.”
Mr. Burns said it was unclear why the Kremlin has long been determined to secure the release of Mr. Bout, 55, a former Soviet military officer who made a fortune in global arms trafficking before he was caught in a federal sting operation.
“That is a good question because Viktor Bout is a creep,” Mr. Burns said. Some analysts believe that Mr. Bout enjoys loyalty from former criminal associates with continued influence at the Kremlin.
In 2010, Mr. Bout agreed to sell arms to undercover U.S. federal agents who said they belonged to Colombia’s FARC rebel group, which the United States classified at the time as a terrorist organization. Prosecutors said Mr. Bout did not object when the agents said they intended to use the weapons to kill American troops supporting Colombia’s military.
In an interview last month, however, the judge who sentenced Mr. Bout, Shira A. Scheindlin, said that Mr. Bout “was not a terrorist, in my opinion. He was a businessman.” She added that she felt the mandatory 25-year sentence she was forced to impose was too high and that a trade of Mr. Bout for Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan would be reasonable.
Let’s hope Russia accepts this deal!
Tony
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