Russia is a terrorist state. You cant negotiate with them. This is the facts of today.
Except they did do just that for Brittney Griner.
Brittney Griner was a celebrity stuck in a political dispute, Whelan is a totally different case. I don’t think he was spying for the CIA, but he was up to some pretty sketchy stuff, and he has an even sketchier past.
He’s claimed to work as a police officer in multiple places that say they have no record of him, or that he only worked there for a short time. He was court marshalled for larceny and given a bad conduct discharge. Even after his discharge he was hired as head of security for a global firm that did business in Russia. Even ignoring the fact that he holds like 4 different citizenships, just the information that he has provided himself is super sketchy.
I wouldn’t be in any rush to to spend political capital on this dude either.
Besides, how many Merchants of Death do you think we have in custody?
Less than we have in political offices unfortunately.
That’s fine. I just would not have spent political capital on Griner, either.
At least that has some return on investment, that’s if you’re looking at it from the perspective of a politician.
Though I do find it pretty hypocritical that he spent that capital freeing someone from a crime that he himself is perfectly fine sending people to jail for in America.
What return? WNBA fans are not exactly a huge group.
But you know who she is… I’d say it’s pretty self evident that it was fairly effective PR.
Reality doesn’t matter, politics revolves around perception and fabricating the PR story you want.
“President saves famous female athlete from tyrant” is always going to be a net plus. The people who don’t agree or perceive it in a different fashion are either votes you wouldn’t win anyways, or people who don’t care about it enough to vote for someone else because of it.
Eh, I really don’t think many people are saying “I wasn’t going to vote for Biden, but he freed Brittney Griner.” And there are surely others who think Biden was wrong for trading an arms dealer for a WNBA “star.”
If only he was a WNBA player vaping THC.
For her we gave up the Merchant of Death.
Wasn’t worth it.
I’m sure she would disagree, as would you if you were in a Russian prison.
I wouldn’t go near Russia. But she is a tad bit biased.
I don’t know what she is biased about. Seems to me that she was just trying to make a buck and the kickback of Russia invading Ukraine ran over her. Wrong place. Wrong time.
Yea, no…If you’re going to cross into another country, make sure you respect the laws of said country. Next time she’ll hopefully leave her drugs at home.
The laws in Russia are very much determined on what Russia’s anxiety is at the time. Don’t play the lawful card.
Seems to me like she thought she was above the law because she was semi-popular.
This poor guy doesn’t get the same special treatment because he isn’t sort of somewhat a little bit famous.
This guy’s real problems are…
A. Hes up on espionage charges
B. The US is still supplying weapons to Ukraine
C. The US has no high value prisoners that Russia wants
Then they’d be wrong. It objectively isn’t worth it.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Gerschkovich is still awaiting a trial, but Whelan, who was arrested on similar charges in 2018 while attending a friend’s wedding, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
In Washington, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the families of Americans who are being detained or held hostage to not give up hope.
Speaking Tuesday at a regular press briefing at the State Department, spokesperson Mathew Miller reiterated that Russia had rejected “significant proposals” for the two men’s release, "one as recently as a few weeks ago.
According to CBS Detroit, Whelan’s brother David said in an email earlier this month that the White House was telling the family Paul’s case remained a top priority, but that he was unsure what that meant anymore.
“It has taken nearly twelve months for the U.S. to gather its resources and make a singular offer for Paul’s freedom,” David Whelan said in the email.
The U.S. has negotiated prisoner swaps with Russia in the past, including the high-profile 2022 deal that saw basketball star Brittney Griner freed by Moscow in exchange for the U.S. releasing long-jailed arms dealer Viktor Bout, whose illicit deeds earned him the nickname,“the Merchant of Death.”
The original article contains 749 words, the summary contains 198 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Sorry bro, you need to be a celebrity to get special treatment.
He is accused of reporting the truth within the borders of fascist Russia.
deleted by creator
