BREAKING: US has traded Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout (Merchant of Death) for Brittney Griner

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Paul Whelan is also wrongfully detained. Hopefully another deal can be made for him. Maybe that's what was holding this up since she was convicted a long time ago.

I don't care what the other guy did. It's a deal.

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I don't care what the other guy did. It's a deal.

Why not?

I don't know.

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This is possibly the worst prisoner exchange in history, no wonder Biden waited until after the midterms (and GA runoff) to announce it. So I guess it's now open season on American citizens in even midly hostile territory abroad? Since the precedent has been set that a D-list celebrity can be swapped with a powerful/dangerous arms dealer.

Explain.

International arms trafficker and supplier of African/ME/South American warlords with arsenals worth several billion dollars = basketball player? a human being and American citizen.

FTFY

Maybe she shouldn’t have brought pot to Russia? Or hell, gone to Russia in the first place. No American citizens safety can be guaranteed in Russia when Biden has shown they can be used as bargaining chips.

He hadn't shown that in February.

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I'm shocked Russia agreed to this deal without getting a commitment from the United States to abandon Ukraine.

We would have never gone for that and Putin wanted this guy back badly.

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As for Whelan I don't care what he's done I wish we could have gotten him back too. But I guess Russia sees him as a different category and we probably have to give back a spy or something to get him.

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Brittney Griner arrives in the US after being released from Russian custody in a prisoner exchange

Brittney Griner, the American basketball star detained by Russian authorities in February, has safely returned to the United States after being released from custody in a prisoner exchange.

Griner, 32, “arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas early Friday … and was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center for a routine evaluation,” a State Department official told CNN.

US officials who met Griner said she was “in good spirits” and “incredibly gracious,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told CNN. Griner stepped off the plane shortly after 5:30 a.m. ET at Kelly Field.

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Griner’s release was secured after a prisoner swap between the US and Russia that involved international arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was arrested in 2008 in Thailand and extradited to the US in 2010.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/09/us/brittney-griner-release-us-arrival-friday/index.html

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I’d rather see a guilty person let free than an innocent person sent to the gulags. Bout already served a lot of his sentencing anyways, and there’s no guarantee that he’s gonna go back to being an arms dealer

Why would Russia want him if he's not of any use to them, then?

It's a matter of national pride for Russia. They think he was wrongly detained.

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We need to bring Whelan home too and Marc Fogel as well. Hopefully there are deals in the works for them. But this was one for one apparently and they'd only take Griner for Bout.

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Yes unfortunately since they irrationally believe he's a spy the price is much higher, possibly too high. Of course it was still worth it to get Griner home when we could.

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Griner has been in the news all year even though this forum mostly ignored it. I'm pretty sure most knew who she was.

I did not know who she was before her arrest though.

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Does that matter though? If we were getting an arms dealer back instead it would be an ok trade?

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Does that matter though? If we were getting an arms dealer back instead it would be an ok trade?

no, Bout supplied terrorists and should never have been released, ideally they should have had him killed in prison. 

Ok I don't know what you mean by she's not in the same league then.