After a nine-month ordeal, Brittney Griner will spend Christmas with family in the United States. Paul Whelan will spend the holidays in the penal colony of Mordovia, in central Russia, for the fifth consecutive year. While the American basketball player was released on Thursday as part of a exchange between against the arms dealer Viktor Bout, former american soldier was not included in the transaction.
In a telephone interview with CNN, Paul Whelan said he was “extremely disappointed” and said he was “always considered at a higher level” by Moscow, because of the espionage charges, which he and Washington dispute.
Brittney Griner traded for an arms dealer
“A few moments ago I spoke with Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is 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 next 24 hours in the United States. She has “good morale” despite the “trauma” endured, added Joe Biden, who thanked the United Arab Emirates. The exchange took place at Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Telegram.
The basketball player’s wife, Cherelle Griner, said she was “overwhelmed with emotions”: “My family is complete,” she added, expressing her “gratitude” for the Democratic administration. His club in the United States, the Phoenix Mercury, which tweeted daily the number of his days in detention, welcomed his release on Twitter. “No more days (counting). She comes back home. And the WNBA, the American professional women’s basketball league, expressed its “relief”.
The women’s basketball star was exchanged for the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, imprisoned for ten years in the United States. Famous Russian arms trafficker, arrested in Thailand in 2008, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States. Nicknamed the “merchant of death”, his extraordinary career served as inspiration for the film “Lord of War” in which Nicolas Cage plays a most cynical arms trafficker.
Paul Whelan, a prisoner less media and more sensitive
Arrested in December 2018 in Russia, Paul Whelan, a former soldier who became director of security for the American automotive supplier BorgWarner, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison for “espionage”. A conviction that he denounced as fabricated from scratch.
In a call with CNN, Paul Whelan welcomed the release of Brittney Griner 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 considered me at a higher level than all the other prisoners” because of the charges.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also believes that Moscow “treats the file (Paul Whelan) differently. “It was not a choice on which American to 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 meets regularly with American officials, asked on Thursday to be able to speak “directly to Joe Biden”, concluding. “It is obvious that I am being held hostage. »