President Joe Biden's prisoner swap effort is a high-risk political move.
Brittney Griner, American basketball star, has already landed in the United States, in San Antonio (Texas), after ten months of detention in Moscow and then in a penal colony. She had to serve a nine-year sentence for carrying marijuana cartridges to vape. His release, the hug with his family, is a reason for celebration for Americans in general, and more so being a person with a wide emotional radar, who appeals to patriotism, the world of sports, African-Americans, the LGBTQ community and any of good heart.
But Viktor Bout also landed in Moscow, the so-called "merchant of death" who had paid eleven of the 25 years imposed on him by a New York court in the Marion (Illinois) prison. He was considered to have armed every terrorist group imaginable and whose attacks killed, among many others, numerous Americans. They were waiting for Bout with a bouquet of white roses.
Biden appeared at the White House to tell the nation of the great news. "Brittney will soon be in the arms of her loved ones, where she should always have been," she remarked in her speech, delivered alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and an emotional Cherelle Griner, the athlete's wife. .
In his words, the president did not quote Bout, but he did acknowledge his regret for not having been able to bring back Paul Whelan, a former marine and executive of a security company, arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 14 years in Russia also for a insignificant amount of cannabis, although he was also suspected of espionage, which he has always denied.
Before Biden left the room of his appearance, journalists were heard asking him about the two of them, about Bout and Whelan. The joy for Griner's freedom immediately fell the shadow of the moral complexity of this episode, which exposes Biden to real danger.
Among the many voices of happiness, those of former President Barack Obama or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood out. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the next leader of the House Democrats, tweeted that "President Biden has done it."
However, there were voices that did not hide their concern. Chris Coons, a Democratic senator and good friend of Biden, congratulated himself on the success of the release, although he accepted that "there is a risk that we will see ourselves in more unjustified arrests" to demand things in return.
Some Pentagon officials expressed concern that Bout "returns to his arms-trafficking activities, potentially fueling conflicts around the world." Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who heads the foreign relations committee, acknowledged that "we cannot ignore that it is a deeply disturbing decision" to release Bout.
But it was from the Republican ranks that the highest-pitched disqualifications were heard. "Griner's freedom should not have been obtained at the price of letting go of one of the world's worst arms dealers and setting a dangerous precedent for our enemies: arrest Americans and Democrats will agree to release your killers," he said in a statement Senator Tom Cotton.
This conservative senator, who has always been very critical of Biden's foreign policy, added that opening the door to Bout is a mistake, because "he is one of the most demonic enemies of the United States."
“How many people will Bout kill now that Biden has set him free?” asked ultra-conservative Marjorie Taylor Greene. According to this legislator, a worshiper of the cult of QAnon, this is another reason to propose the "impeachment" of the president.
One of his colleagues, legislator Michael McCaul, a senior Republican position on the House foreign affairs committee, stated that the decision to release Bout, whose sentence did not expire until 2029, was in line with Cotton, considering that this will only incentivize other countries to take American hostages.
“I am relieved that Griner is coming home,” he said in a statement. "But trading it for Viktor Bout, who was in prison for conspiring to kill Americans, only encourages Vladimir Putin to continue his evil practices of detaining innocent Americans as a bargaining chip for his policy," McCaul insisted.
Congressmen aligned with Donald Trump are the ones who spoke out most harshly about this exchange. According to Kevin McCarthy, the swap operation "is a sign of weakness" of the US government. The leader of the Republicans in the lower house maintained that "this is a gift to Putin."
These allusions to the Russian president were linked to the jubilation expressed in the Kremlin for welcoming the former Soviet army officer. They considered this one-for-one swap of an athlete for a promoter of terrorism a victory. For some it served as a wonderful distraction from Ukraine's hectic war effort, in a week when Kiyv's forces have been able to bomb bases deep inside Russia.
“Putin beats Biden,” Sergei Markok, a former Moscow government adviser, wrote on a Telegram channel. “We got our spy back and gave away a normal girl,” he sneered.
Margarita Simonyan, head of the state channel RT, dropped on that same social platform that the decision to send Griner, arrested for the cannabis found in her luggage, but preventing the departure of Whelan, a navy veteran, is an example of the decline of the west. According to The New York Times, this argument is a common theme in Russian pro-war propaganda.
The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, confessed that, in the negotiations for Whelan, the Russians "did not operate in good faith." Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, stressed that Moscow stated that the swap was "one or none", and that one could only be Griner.
"It's excessive," McCarthy concluded in his criticism of leaving Whelan behind. Along these lines, Republican Senator Jim Risch rebuked Biden for failing to get Whelan to return to his home. "It is clear that he should have been part of this deal, he is a Marine who fought for our country and he is a hero," he remarked. “He has spent four years unjustly detained, mistreated in Russian prisons. The Biden administration cannot forget it now that Griner has been released," Risch added.
At no time were his complaints heard when Donald Trump was president and his admired Putin arrested and imprisoned Whelan. He didn't get her to come home either.
In the conservative media, there was a transition from politics to the cultural profile of the social grievance that marks this country: Griner, a black, famous and gay athlete, is free. Whelan, white who served in the navy, no.
