Brittney
Griner was released today from Russian custody after President
Vladimir Putin’s government reached a deal with the United States that included
a prisoner swap. While one family is sure to experience immense relief, a
second family remains hopeful to soon be reunited with a loved one detained in
Russia.
After nearly
10 months in captivity as a geopolitical prisoner in Russia, the 32-year-old
WNBA player was released from Russian custody and flown to the United Arab
Emirates when the Biden administration announced her release.
Griner
was arrested and charged in Russia in February for having
a vape cartridge in her luggage with less than 1 gram of cannabis-derived oil.
The center for the Phoenix Mercury was in Russia to play for a team there
during the WNBA off-season. The Russian government initiated a sham
investigation into the potential of Griner’s role in the widespread
distribution of drugs, and a subsequent show trial left Griner declared guilty and sentenced to nine years of detention in
a notorious gulag-type Russian prison colony.
Despite her
pleas for mercy and appeals from the United States government, the Russian
judicial system was unimpressed, and as recently as November, her appeals were
denied. Griner was made to disappear as part of the punishment process that
begins with a transfer to a prison colony.
Four types of
prison colonies exist in Russia, each with its distinct
incarceration practices. In colony settlements, prisoners can move around, live
in large barracks, leave on passes, visit family, and dress as civilians. Most
of their inmates have served a significant portion of their sentences, so they
are generally the least strict prisons.
Prison
colonies under the ordinary regime are highly supervised by their guards.
Inmates are housed in large barracks with a maximum of 100 beds. They are
constantly monitored and cannot move about freely. Inmates living in strict or
special prison colonies are usually restricted; they typically live in locked
cells with up to 50 others.
Griner’s
lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, informed The Advocate in
a statement on November 17 that she had been taken to IK-2 in Mordovia, about
300 miles from Moscow, after the attorneys went two weeks without any knowledge
of where she was. There is a history of abuse of prisoners at IK-2, which is
classified as an ordinary regime security facility.
News of
Griner’s release could not have come at a better time for her wife and family.
“Over the last
nine months, you all have been so privy to one of the darkest moments of my
life,” Cherelle Griner said during an appearance alongside President Joe Biden
in the White House Roosevelt Room.
Cherelle,
Brittney’s wife, said she was “overwhelmed with emotions, but the most
important emotion that I have right now is just sincere gratitude for President
Biden and his entire administration. Today my family is whole, but as you are
all aware, there are so many families who are not whole.”
She added that
it was of utmost importance (and thus a cause to which the couple is dedicated)
to “getting every American home, including Paul [Whelan], whose family is in
our hearts today.” Whelan was convicted on espionage charges, which he says are
bogus.
Some Biden
administration critics decried the President for not securing Whelan’s release
alongside Griner’s in exchange for the prisoner Russia had demanded back.
However, Biden said, “This was not a choice about which American we bring
home.”
Instead, he
said, “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case
differently than Brittney’s,” Biden said. Biden displayed his famous empathy
when he acknowledged the mixed emotions Whelan’s family must be experiencing.
“My thoughts
and prayers are with them today,” Biden said of the family. “They have to have
such mixed emotions today. And we’ll keep negotiating in good faith for Paul’s
release. I guarantee that. I say that to the family. I guarantee you.”
However, Biden
administration officials explained that in the negotiations, it became clear
that Russia had made a take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum. As a result, the U.S.
could trade a convicted Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the U.S. for nearly
15 years for Griner or nobody at all.
The
administration ultimately chose one rescue over zero, and through communication
with Whelan’s family, diplomats received a kind of endorsement from Whelan’s
relatives.
“I am so glad
that Brittney Griner is on her way home,” David Whelan, Paul’s brother, wrote in a statement. “As the family member of a
Russian hostage, I can literally only imagine the joy she will have, being
reunited with her loved ones, and in time for the holidays.”
He noted that
months of negotiations between the United States and Russia led to Griner’s
release through a prisoner exchange in the United Arab Emirates, and said, “The
Biden Administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home and to
make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going
to happen.”
As Biden
indicated in a tweet, Griner was on the way home to the U.S. on Thursday.
Russia
exchanged the athlete’s freedom for the release of Viktor Bout, a former arms
dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.
He was found
guilty in April 2012 of conspiring to kill Americans, acquiring and exporting
anti-aircraft missiles, and aiding terrorism.
SOURCE: ADVOCATE
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