Brittney Griner Trade for Viktor Bout
What This Swap Says About Russia and the USA
December 8 was a great day for the Griner family and also for America — Brittany Griner, a queer Black basketball star, had been released by Moscow and was going home. Her detention and exchange for Victor Bout, a notorious arms dealer, tell us a great deal about the US and Russia, and the difference between democracies and autocracies.
Freeing political hostages — as Griner surely was — is a delicate piece of diplomacy, even more so when the opposing countries are in a state of overt hostilities.
Throughout Griner’s detention, US groups and media made allegations that she was not getting enough attention from the Biden administration because of her race and sexual identity. That’s a serious charge, but the lack of progress and comment gave rise to suspicion that the same forces of prejudice that formed Griner’s life were at work.
There was another possible if less exciting explanation. Families and supporters of all types of hostages are routinely encouraged to avoid comment because publicity can backfire, convincing the hostage-taker that their victim is worth even more than they supposed. But the long process of negotiation takes a heavy toll of anxiety, and many turn from private to public advocacy to press their government. This, of course, can only take place in a country with a free press. Griner’s family, colleagues and many admirers turned on the public pressure four months into her detention, and Washington became a bit more public too, terming her “wrongfully detained,” the diplomatic euphemism for a hostage.
Griner is an Olympic medalist and NBA star, a supporter of LGBTQ+ youth, and a role model for all who struggle with racial and sexual prejudice. She is famous, in a very good way. Her arrest in Moscow happened in February, just before Russia invaded Ukraine, when airport officials found seven tenths of a gram of hashish oil in vape cartridges that had been legally prescribed for her. Russia gave her a show trial and a disproportionate 9-year sentence to penal labor in a show trial.
Victor Bout, on the other hand, is a frightening person who for decades supplied arms to the most brutal wars around the globe. He was 12 years into a 25-year sentence for conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles and provide material support to terrorist organizations (25 years being the mandatory minimum sentence for the material support charge, which is generally excessive though possibly appropriate for someone of Bout’s stature and activities).
There’s no mass movement for his liberation, because everyone knows he should be behind bars. But Bout has friends in high places in Russia, particularly in Putin’s circle and the intelligence services. Marina Butina, convicted in 2018 in the US of being an unregistered foreign agent and now a Duma member, welcomed his release and the state-controlled and funded RT network ran fawning articles about Bout for years. Even Putin is rumored to have lobbied for him.
Could Griner’s case have received more attention? Maybe, but did you know the name of Paul Whelan yesterday, the former marine turned corporate security executive who has been held by Moscow on trumped-up espionage charges since December 2018? What about Marc Fogel? He’s a history teacher who is serving a 14-year labor camp sentence for having a small amount of medical marijuana he used for chronic back pain. And Sarah Krivanek? She’s an American teacher who nicked her boyfriend with a knife she grabbed when he attacked her. After the boyfriend withdrew charges, she was released from detention but authorities have not allowed her to return home; she’s still waiting in a holding facility.
The reason it’s important that the Biden administration took the proffer of Griner, even when these others weren’t included, is because Russia’s government is notoriously homophobic, and Griner’s imprisonment was likely to be particularly brutal and fraught with danger. In the coming days, we’ll hear more about her treatment and what she endured. We’ll also hear more about the new law Russia is passing to criminalize virtually any public mention of same-sex or transgender relationships.
Now I’d like to see all those NBA stars and people who campaigned for Griner’s release follow the lead of her wife, Cherelle Griner, who said she and Brittany “will remain committed to the work of getting every American home.” Coming from a black queer couple, that’s a powerful message to all who have unjustly lost their liberty.
