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Rabat – Months of negotiations between the US and Russia culminated on Thursday in the announcement of a prisoner-swap deal that saw the release of American basketball player Brittney Griner.
The 32-year-old athlete was freed in exchange for Viktor Bout, a 55-year-old Russian arms dealer who is infamously nicknamed “The Merchant of Death.”
The arms dealer was imprisoned in 2011 on charges of supplying weapons to terrorist organizations and conspiring to kill Americans.
Griner was arrested in February on charges of drug smuggling after a small amount of cannabis oil was found on her when entering Russia.
The deal was met with satisfaction from Kremlin supporters in Russia, who have long called Bout’s imprisonment politically motivated. Some in Russia saw the deal as a sign that the geopolitical barriers between the two countries could be broken down and that Americans could be willing to make similar deals in the future.
In contrast, Americans seemed to be less approving of the move, with some seeing it as a “terrible deal” to give Russia a notorious arms dealer, especially when the Ukraine war is still raging on.
The critics also pointed out that high-profile former marine Paul Whelan remains in Russian custody, although the Biden administration said they are working on freeing him as well.
Some on the right of the American political spectrum expressed specific distaste for Griner, who had in the past been outspoken on racial injustice issues in the US.
Others criticized the fact that the White House would go to such lengths to free Griner, who was imprisoned for a non-violent drug crime, when some American inmates are serving long sentences for the same crime.
They called on the Biden administration to make similar moves to free non-violent drug offenders in American prisons.
