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

Sounds okay to me. We get back an American who was unfairly sentenced to 9 years in a hell hole. We give up a useless jackass who we can take out whenever we feel like it if he goes back to his old ways, which seems extremely unlikely.

 

Possibly. And what’s the over-under for how longer Putin is going to be in power, one way or another?

 

I don’t see anything wrong with us asking whether and to what extent her celebrity status played a role. Celebrities are often treated differently in many ways. Maybe that’s not fair. It just strikes me how many guys (not talking about you) seem really, really pissed because they seem to feel that Black lesbians are now on top of our social and political food chains.

 

Is you position that Biden is setting the “precedent”. Before you answer… here is some background on what other presidents have done:

(I know it’s NYT… I will find a Breitbart article for you).

Here are some prisoner swaps that freed Americans.

here’s a nice Breitbart one about Reed.

A look at Trevor Reed, the Texan released in prisoner swap - Breitbart

here’s a nice description about Ronald Reagan

The Truth About Reagan's Prisoner Swap

 

No desire to read the book but agree in never having any desire at all to ever step one foot into Russia.

But Griner chose to live and work there. At the same time, she had to be well aware of the strict Russian laws regarding illegal drugs and the consequences should those laws be broken. This whole situation was a prime example of stupid is as stupid does.

 

Everything is illegal in Russia if they want it to be. Everything is legal if you are in the elite. Grainer was an elite until she wasn’t.

 

fwiw, my aunt and my mother-in-law are both happily married lesbians so her being a black lesbian has nothing to do with my objection and I have no problem with her being brought home. I just think it is wrong that she was given priority over others who have been there longer and are more at risk of not making it out alive

 

no, they haven't. They haven't declared him as wrongfully detained, something they did for Griner immediately after her arrest. And I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that they would have release Fogel if Biden would have told them to take it or leave it. I learned as a young man that you never enter into negotiations on anything if you are not willing to walk away from the deal unless you are prepared to surrender to their terms. Do you think for one minute that Putin was going to leave him in the US prison jsut so he could hold onto a 60 year old english teacher? Muleiple groups have petitioned the state dept to declare him as wrongfully detained, they still haven't done it

Rep. Mike Kelly statement on release of Brittney Griner, efforts to bring home Pa. native Marc Fogel held in Russia | Congressman Mike Kelly (house.gov)

Mr. Fogel is a Butler County, Pennsylvania native and taught history courses at schools attended by children of U.S. diplomats in Columbia, Venezuela, Oman, Malaysia, and Russia. In August 2021, he was detained at the Sheremetyevo Airport with a small amount of medical marijuana prescribed for his chronic back pain. In June 2022, he was sentenced to fourteen years of hard labor in a Russian prison, a sentence usually reserved for large-scale drug smugglers.

Under federal law, Mr. Fogel meets at least six of the eleven established criteria to be designated as “wrongfully detained” by the State Department.

Russian law defines a "large amount" of marijuana to be 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) or more, according to reports.

In November, Reps. Kelly, Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) and Glenn Thompson (R-PA) signed on as original cosponsors to a resolution urging the State Department to declare Mr. Fogel as "wrongfully detained."

 

CNN just reported that Bolton said that the Trump admin turned down a trade for Wheelan in exchange for Bout

I’m sure there will be crickets from the usual suspects.

 

DT said it all when he said he referred to McCain and said he liked heroes who didn't get captured. He likely felt the same way about Wheelan

 

"This was not a choice of which American to bring home," Biden said. "Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we are not giving up. We will never give up."

WNBA star Brittney Griner released from Russian detention in prisoner swap for convicted arms dealer | CNN Politics

 

exactly, we have no idea about the details of the dialog. We all want Americans who are being held in Russia to come home.

 

I thought Trump and Putin were such good buds, seems like Vlad would have done a solid for Trump and let Whelan go, guess not since you’re saying Trump didn’t do anything because it was hard.

However I have little doubt had Trump gotten Whelan out the headline would be Trump was buds with Russia so they did it for their pals….

 

We’ll never know cuz he didn’t get him out. Biden did.

 

Whelan isn't out, he's in a Moscow hospital.

Concern grows about Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia.

 

If this spineless administration doesn’t think Bout was a valuable enough asset to trade for a U.S. marine now but is good enough for an anthem hating black lesbian then what remaining Russian asset do we have that would be considered valuable enough for that trade?

 

Hmmm. Interesting take and interesting use of ‘deserve’

Brittney Griner deserves more than American support. She deserves American cash.

 

We don’t know what’s going on behind the scene, so why make a statement that likely is bullshit?

 

2 different things, even for you [fill in the blank].

 

You remain deeply confused about how thing actually work. Putin said NYET! to the trade for Whelan and Bout. 3 years ago it was the Trump admin who said NYET to the deal. The guy who helped get Trevor Reed out said on CNN that without getting in to details the US has several high value people the Russians want likely spies. We got done what we could and it’s a credit to the admin that we got a US citizen home who was unjustly detained.

My reasonable take on this? The skids have been greased I can see Fogel and Whelan home in the next six months in yet another big win for the Biden Admin and their families.