After a nine-month ordeal, Brittney Griner will be spending Christmas with her family in the United States. Paul Whelan will spend the holidays in the Mordovia penal colony in central Russia for the fifth year in a row. While the US basketball player was released Thursday in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout, the former US soldier was not involved in the transaction.
In a telephone interview with CNN, Paul Whelan said he was “extremely disappointed” and said he had “always been viewed on a higher level” by Moscow over allegations of espionage, which he and Washington deny.
Brittney Griner acted against an arms dealer
“I was talking to Brittney Griner a few moments ago. She is safe. She’s on an airplane. She’s on her way to the United States,” US President Joe Biden said during a brief address at the White House. The basketball player is expected in the United States in the next 24 hours. Despite the “trauma,” she had “good morals,” added Joe Biden, who thanked the United Arab Emirates. The exchange took place at Abu Dhabi Airport in the United Arab Emirates, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced on Telegram.
The basketball player’s wife, Cherelle Griner, said she was “overwhelmed with emotion”: “My family is complete,” she added, expressing her “gratitude” for the Democratic government. His club in the United States, the Phoenix Mercury, which tweeted daily the number of his days in prison, welcomed his release on Twitter. “No more days (counting). She comes back home. And the WNBA, the American professional women’s basketball league, was “relieved”.
The women’s basketball star has been swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who has been jailed in the US for ten years. The famous Russian arms dealer was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States. Nicknamed the “Dealer of Death,” his extraordinary career inspired the film “Lord of War,” in which Nicolas Cage plays a highly cynical arms dealer.
Paul Whelan, a prisoner without media and more sensitive
Arrested in Russia in December 2018, former soldier Paul Whelan, who became security director at American automotive supplier BorgWarner, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 for “espionage”. A belief he denounced as invented from scratch.
In a call to CNN, Paul Whelan welcomed Brittney Griner’s release but said he was “strongly disappointed” not to be part of the exchange. “I don’t understand why I’m still here,” he said, adding, “The Russians have always ranked me higher than any other prisoner because of the charges.”
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also believes that Moscow is “treating the (Paul Whelan) file differently. “It wasn’t a choice which American we bring home. It was a choice of one or nothing,” he said, adding, “We continue to work tirelessly” to secure Whelan’s release. The latter, who regularly meets with American officials, asked Thursday to be able to speak “directly to Joe Biden,” concluding. “It is obvious that I am being held hostage. »