Dem
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GOP
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Sooner or later, it seems, everything becomes part of the culture wars. So is it with the release of basketball player Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia for 10 months for taking a small amount of marijuana oil with her when she entered Russia. What could have been a moment for Americans to celebrate—the release of an American citizen held on minor charges in a grim Russian penal colony—just added more fuel to the ongoing culture wars. Incoming House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said: "President Biden gets it done." Current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said the trade of Griner for arms merchant Viktor Bout "was a gift to Putin."
If you want to get a better idea of what Bout does for a living and why Putin wants him back in the saddle, read this story in Politico. It might change your mind on whether the trade was a good idea. The story is grisly. You have been warned.
So far, it is a legitimate point. Is trading a basketball player for "the merchant of death" who has armed terrorists that killed Americans (and who may continue to do so in the future) a good deal? In chess, is sacrificing the queen to capture a pawn a good trade-off? In both cases, generally no. But politically for Joe Biden, not helping a Black lesbian who was also a pawn could hurt him politically with Black, lesbian, and liberal voters, so he did it. But the story doesn't end there.
As soon as Griner arrived at a San Antonio military hospital for evaluation and treatment, the right-wing echo chamber exploded. The charge leveled at Biden is that he traded Bout for the wrong person. Another American held captive on Russia is Paul Whelan, a former Marine who was convicted in a Russian court of espionage. No one outside the CIA knows if he really is a spy and the CIA isn't talking. But the right-wing outrage machine is screaming that Biden chose to free a (useless) Black lesbian who is married to a woman over a white man and veteran who defended his country because, well, Biden values Black lesbians over straight white men and military heroes. Needless to say, this gets the blood of Tucker Carlson's viewers boiling, which is the whole point of his show. Donald Trump Jr. added that the Biden administration "was apparently worried that their DEI score would go down if they freed an American Marine" (DEI is an acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, something many companies strive for).
What Carlson, Trump, and others didn't bother to mention is that Whelan is no innocent angel. While in the Marine Corps, he was court martialed for larceny, convicted, and drummed out of the Corps with a bad conduct discharge. He may well have broken Russian laws and was caught at it, so he was tried, convicted, and imprisoned.
Further, Biden did try to get Whelan out as part of the deal or even instead of Griner, but Vladimir Putin said no. It was Griner for Bout or no deal at all. Biden took what he could get. Putin wanted Bout back but was not willing to give up Whelan to get him back. The reason Putin wanted Bout back is that Bout had close ties with the GRU (Russian military intelligence) and Putin assumed the CIA would torture him to extract what it could about the GRU from him. After all, if the shoe were on the other foot, that is what he would do. From all reports, Bout wasn't tortured and didn't give up much information. He just sat quietly in prison for more than a decade with his mouth shut. That is something Putin admires and probably felt was worth rewarding, especially since it didn't cost him anything.
Part of the reason Putin didn't release Whelan as part of the deal is that he has something else in mind. He is open to trading Whelan for a colonel in the FSB, Vadim Krasikov, who is currently serving a life sentence in Germany for assassinating someone in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019. A combo deal didn't work out because the Germans didn't want to spring someone they consider to be a terrorist. Nevertheless, discussions with Germany are ongoing and it is conceivable Biden might be able to work something out with Chancellor Olaf Scholz. For example, Germany has a serious energy problem due to the cutoff of supplies from Russia and some number of boatloads of liquified natural gas might soften Scholz' heart on the Krasikov matter.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) went on CBS' Face the Nation yesterday and said that Putin intentionally told Biden that it's Griner or nothing specifically to "roil the American body politic," knowing that it would result in yet another culture wars battle. If that is true, Putin knows what he is doing because it worked. (V)