POLL: Should the US trade Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner?

**message from GC brass**

You have hit your monthly gif maximum.

 

not going on a crusade for either of them to be traded for a hardened criminal that was supplying arms to some really bad people. it only encourages Russia to set up more americans. there is a reason we don't negotiate with terrorists

 

no, they treated the other guy the same way.

 

Absolutely not on this trade. One is arms dealer, a slimeball and one of the most dangerous people in the world. The other is an athlete and an entertainer. Sorry, but one of these things is not like the other.

 

One good thing about an American citizenship, amongst many others, is we’re a country that will help you in a foreign land. I voted yes out of that principle.

 

A "fair trade" seems to be more of a principle for people here than helping a citizen that's been railroaded get home.

 

So we wait until they capture an American scum bag and then make a deal or let someone rot away? Or we arrest a Russian athlete on a petty crime and throw the book at him so its a 'fair' deal? This makes no sense man.

 

I can get jiggy with this.

 

Not our country, stop applying our laws in their country.

So if something was legal in Russia and not in the US and a Russian committed the crime here should we just let them go?

 

How about don't break another country's laws and give a hostile nation even an inkling of an excuse to arrest you? Or don't travel to said nation in the first place? Trading an entertainer for a scumbag is not my idea of a a good deal.

 

At the expense of one of the most dangerous people on the globe being released to resume his activities? The good of the many in this particular case.

 

Damn it. We don't have any ruski basketball players in prison somewhere?

 

Of course they are and they knew we would offer him in exchange. Russia knows our government is incompetent. I'm glad we have no superheroes and villains because I could see us trade Lex Luthor for Griner. This arms dealer is responsible for more deaths than Lebron has in career points. He will be welcomed back with open arms

 

Wait, so the guy who sells the guns is responsible for deaths caused by those guns? *Runs away* (BTW, I'm not really in favor of a straight up deal, but if we can get a few back, that would be okay by me).

 

Anyone who thinks that this is a sign of American incompetence and weakness obviously is not familiar with the way Israelis feel and will act towards their soldiers that are kidnapped especially.

They never care about being proportional in trades, as much as they hate it. The ignorance on this board astounds me

 

Every nation negotiates with terrorists, or whatever you call it.

 

I know your point is in jest, but Maria Butina, a Russian spy, was able to get a lot of doors open by feigning an interest in gun rights


In July 2018, while residing in Washington, D.C., Butina was arrested by the FBI and charged with acting as an agent of the Russian Federation "without prior notification to the Attorney General."[8] In December 2018, she pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent of the Russian state under 18 U.S.C. §951.[9][10][11][12][13] In April 2019, a federal judge sentenced her to 18 months in prison.[14] She served around 5 months at Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution. Her 9-month pretrial prison term[15] was counted towards her sentence, and she was released in October 2019 and deported back to Russia.[16] She denied accusations that she was a Russian agent.[17] In 2021, she was elected to the State Duma as a member of United Russia.

According to US prosecutors who prosecuted Butina on charges of conspiracy and acting as a foreign agent, her love of guns was a ruse to advance Russia's agenda within the Republican Party.[4]Anders Åslund described Right to Bear Arms as a "front organization with the purpose of infiltrating American groups and forging cooperation with the NRA."


Butina was in a relationship with Overstock.com CEO and Trump conspiracy theorist Patrick M. Byrne. Byrne claimed the FBI encouraged him to pursue Butina, a claim retired FBI officials denied.[49] In 2019, Byrne divested himself of all shares of Overstock after his relationship with Butina was revealed.[50]

For five years, prosecutors claimed, Butina lived with and maintained an intimate relationship with activist and fraudster Paul Erickson. During Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016, Erickson attempted to develop a back-channel between the NRA and the Russian government. Erickson was jailed and convicted of fraud unrelated to his relationship with Butina, then pardoned by Trump in his last week in office
Maria Butina - Wikipedia

 

You heard it here first. Gonna remember that when the next mass shooting happens!