What exactly was so bad about the Brittney Griner hostage trade?
On December 8, 2022, an innocent American returned home after spending nine months unjustly imprisoned in Russia. Brittney Griner, eight-time WNBA all-star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested last February for possession of two vapes and half a gram of hashish oil while playing in the Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League during the off-season. President Joe Biden successfully negotiated a deal wherein the United States returned Viktor Bout, a notorious arms dealer, in exchange for Griner’s safe release.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the news of her release plastered on headlines in nearly every American newspaper. After all, an innocent woman was reunited with her family after spending nearly a year in hell. What’s not to love?
Apparently, a lot. I was shocked by the hatred and vitriol spewed all over the internet. One anonymous Reddit user wrote in a since-deleted comment, “I hope every interview she’s asked how does it feel to have blood on your hands. But they won’t”. I predicted that some people would be dissatisfied, but nothing could have prepared me for the utter contempt that spills through the lines of such comments.
I wanted to understand.
I spent hours perusing opinion pieces on both sides of the political spectrum, and found that the controversy boiled down to three questions.
Why didn’t the United States put its efforts into releasing longer-held American citizens such as Paul Whelan?
Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was wrongfully detained in Russia four years ago on espionage charges, and still has not been released. But the notion that the U.S. could choose from among several Russian-detained citizens was flawed from the start. For whatever reason, Russia is refusing to release Whelan under any circumstances, and there seems to be nothing we can do about it.
Some experts say Russia is waiting on a potential trade for arrested operative Maria Butina. Others say Whelan can be freed through other means, such as the relaxation of economic sanctions. But at the end of the day, all we can do is guess.
The fact remains: the only reason Paul Whelan is still in a prison cell is that Russia has refused to release him, despite significant efforts over the past four years from two separate presidents and their administrations.
So why Brittney Griner?
The answer is simple: because we could. There is no queue to return home from Russia; those who are imprisoned first are not guaranteed to be released first. Was the U.S. supposed to hold off on Griner until Whelan’s release could eventually be negotiated? How long would that take? Are we supposed to leave an innocent person in prison because she was detained three years too late? We release who we can, when we can. This was never an either/or scenario.
In that case, the question becomes, did we pay too much by releasing notorious arms dealer Victor Bout?
Let’s go back to 2008, the year Bout was arrested. One would assume that the removal of such a dangerous man made the world safer, but according to the Congressional Research Service, international weapons trafficking sales the next year increased from approximately $82 billion to $90 billion.
To find the reason for this uptick, we can look to the narcotics trade, where similar trends have been observed. In the illegal narcotics trade, once a major player is removed, there is space in the market for people to enter the trade. Trafficking becomes less localized, and sales increase.
Though counterintuitive, it’s possible that allowing Bout to participate in the illegal arms trade would have kept the world safer.
With that said, Bout was never as big a threat as headlines would suggest. Just before his arrest, he was worth about $6 billion. The estimated profit margin for arms dealing is approximately 30%, so it can be assumed he sold around $18 billion worth of weapons over his entire career, though likely less. In 2015 alone, Russia and the United States sold over $170 billion in arms to developing nations. As Matt Potter, a journalist featured in the 2014 documentary “The Notorious Mr. Bout” writes in his piece for Time Magazine, “The uncomfortable truth is that those dealers are not glorified man-with-a-pickup sole traders like Bout. They are larger players with names like Russia, China, Serbia, France, Italy, Israel… and the U.S.”
Bout was never in the position to vastly influence the market, and he definitely won’t be in a better position after 11 years in prison.
There is so much to be proud of with this deal. As President Joe Biden remarked upon Griner’s release, “she represents the best America.”
Brittney Griner was born and raised in Houston as the daughter of a Vietnam veteran and deputy sheriff. She spent her high school days on the court, working tirelessly to dunk like Michael Jordan, and, in doing so, revolutionized Women’s basketball. She grew up to not only become one of the greatest basketball players in the world, but also an outspoken advocate for the rights of all Black women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Brittney Griner exemplifies everything America strives towards: perseverance, tenacity, and altruism. And now she is home.
None of the reasons for critiquing Griner’s release hold up under scrutiny. So I am left with only one reason for the outpouring of hatred, the same reason that has plagued America since its conception. It is the only reason an Olympic gold medalist would be treated with such spite compared to another innocent person in much the same situation, or considered so much less valuable than an arms dealer.
At the end of the day, the only explanation for such vitriol towards this hostage trade is racial bias. Perhaps I was naive for hoping there was another, better rationale, and for wasting so much time trying to understand. And yet I would rather be naive than abandon my belief in America’s potential. I’ll continue to read the news everyday, expecting the “best of America”. And someday I’ll be right.
Works Cited
AlBaroudi, Wajih, et al. “Brittney Griner Situation Explained: WNBA All-Star Released from Russian Custody after Prisoner Swap.” CBS Sports, CBS, 9 Dec. 2022, www.cbssports.com/wnba/news/brittney-griner-situation-explained-wnba-all-star-released-from-russian-custody-after-prisoner-swap/.
Ben, BC. “How Do Arms Dealers Make Money?” Business Catalog, 25 Aug. 2022, biz-catalog.online/how-do-arms-dealers-make-money/.
Biden, Joseph. “Remarks by President Biden on the Release of Brittney Griner.” The White House, 8 Dec. 2022, Washington D.C. Speech.
“Brittney Griner Released by Russia in 1-for-1 Prisoner Swap for Arms Dealer Viktor Bout, U.S. Official Says.” Reddit, 8 Dec. 2022, www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/zfycwv/comment/ize60gx/.
Crowley, Michael. “Russia’s ‘Sham’ Charge of Spying Makes Whelan’s Case the Hardest.” The New York Times, 14 Dec. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/us/politics/paul-whelan-russia.html.
“Factbox: FACTBOX Paul Whelan, Ex-U.S. Marine Jailed in Russia on Spying Charges.” Reuters, 16 Dec. 2022, www.reuters.com/world/paul-whelan-ex-us-marine-jailed-russia-spying-charges-2022-12-08/.
Heintz, Jim. “‘Merchant of Death’ Viktor Bout Now Part of a Deal Himself.” AP News, 8 Dec. 2022, apnews.com/article/viktor-bout-russian-arms-dealer-brittney-griner-2afb6b2096e40e5c6b6b1fd26b4fbba0.
Lopez, German. “The Biggest Problem with the War on Drugs, Explained in One Video — with Dragons.” Vox, 3 Mar. 2015, www.vox.com/xpress/2014/8/30/6083923/drug-war-on-drugo.
Mackintosh, Eliza. “Viktor Bout: Russian Arms Dealer Known as the ‘Merchant of Death’ Swapped for Brittney Griner.” CNN, 8 Dec. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/americas/viktor-bout-profile-prisoner-swap-intl/index.html.
Nelson, Glenn. “Greatness and Griner Go Hand in Hand.” ESPN, 24 June 2008, www.espn.com/college-sports/recruiting/basketball/womens/news/story?id=3457538.
Potter, Matt. “The Truth about Viktor Bout.” Time, 9 Dec. 2022, time.com/6240082/truth-about-viktor-bout/.
Shear, Michael D., and Peter Baker. “Inside the Prisoner Swap That Freed Brittney Griner.” The New York Times, 9 Dec. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/12/09/us/politics/brittney-griner-prisoner-swap.html.
Sipher, John. “Paul Whelan Isn’t a Spy, and Putin Knows It.” The Atlantic, 10 Jan. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/putin-knows-paul-whelan-isnt-us-spy/579895/.
Theohary, Catherine A. “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2008–2015.” Congressional Research Service, 19 Dec. 2016, sgp.fas.org/crs/weapons/R44716.pdf.
