Consider This from NPR - The Deal That Freed Brittney Griner

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

President Biden on Thursday announced the negotiated release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from a penal colony in Russia and her return to the U.S. She had been detained since February, when Russian authorities found a small amount of hash oil in vape cartidges that were in her luggage when she arrived in the country.In return, the U.S. released convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.NPR's White House Correspondent Franco Ordoñez and Moscow Correspondent Charles Maynes walk through the details of the deal.And White House National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby explains how the negotiations unfolded.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu slash forward. Well, good morning, folks, and it is a good morning. These are the words Brittany Greiner's supporters have been waiting to hear for nearly 10 months. She's safe. She's on a been waiting to hear for nearly 10 months. She's safe. She's on a plane. She's on her way home. At the White House on Thursday, President Biden announced the negotiated release of the WNBA star from a Russian penal colony.

Brittany will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along. Greiner was first detained back in February at an airport outside Moscow. She was traveling there to play for a professional Russian team, as she did every year during the WNBA offseason. This time, Russian authorities found vape cartridges with a small amount of hash oil in her luggage, and they arrested her. The U.S.-Russia relationship was already tense, but a few days later, it got much worse when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Today, Biden praised Greiner for staying strong throughout her ordeal.

She endured mistreatment and a show trial in Russia with characteristic grit and incredible dignity. She represents the best America, best about America, just across the board, everything about her. As the months wore on, many advocates pressured the administration to broker Greiner's release. Her WNBA coach, fellow players from the women's and men's game, but none were louder than her wife, Sherelle Greiner. She was at Biden's side when he made the announcement. Thank you, everybody, for your support. And today is just a happy day for me and my family. So I'm going to smile right now. Thank you. Brittany Greiner's release was a moment of joy. It also prompted a lot of questions,

which you could hear shouted at the president as he left the lectern. Mr. President, what is your question? which you could hear shouted at the president as he left the lectern. In exchange for Greiner, the U.S. agreed to release convicted Russian arms dealer Victor Boot. Then there was the question of Paul Whelan, another American who is still detained in Russia. Biden suggested he would keep negotiating for Whelan's release. What do you say to the Whelan family who says this is a catastrophe for Paul, Mr. President? Consider this. Brittany Greiner is finally coming home. But her release did not come cheap.

We'll hear from our correspondents and Biden's national security spokesman about how the negotiations unfolded. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's Thursday, December 8th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. To hear more about how the deal for Griner's release came together and what the White House and Kremlin are saying about it, my colleague Elsa Chang spoke with two NPR correspondents, Franco Ordonez in Washington and Charles Mainz in Moscow.

Hey to both of you. Hey, Elsa. Hey there. Okay, so Franco, I mean, this was a pretty dramatic moment this morning, but can we just back up? Tell us how this swap came to pass over many, many months, right? Right. It was an agreement for many, many months. A lot of backroom negotiations between Washington and Moscow. In the end, it was a one-for-one prisoner swap. Greiner, as you noted, was swapped for a convicted

Russian arms trader, Viktor But, which was made at the Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates today. Biden actually signed an order cutting short Booth's 25-year sentence. The White House invited Greiner's wife, Sherelle Greiner, to the White House for a meeting with the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan. But when she arrived, she was directed to the Oval Office, where President Biden was there to tell her himself that Brittany Greiner was coming home. And Charles, how did news of this whole prisoner exchange break in Russia? Well, we learned of this in Moscow from Russia's foreign ministry, which issued a statement saying the trade had taken place after lengthy negotiations. Russian state TV later aired video from the security services here that showed a smiling Griner, hair now cropped short, signing her release papers, then leaving the prison colony in Mordovia to get on a plane.

And there's even a bit where the FSB agents engage Greiner on camera. Let's listen. Do you know where I'm heading to? No. No? No. You fly back home. To the U.S.? To the U.S.

Yes, of course. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. Everything will be fine. But Charles, I mean, the U.S. has been pursuing this deal for months now, and Russia seemed to be holding out the whole time. What do you think changed here? Well, you know, one of the reasons the Russian government

has given all along is that Greiner's legal proceedings needed to run their course before any trade could happen. So just last month, Greiner exhausted her appeals process and began formally serving out her nine-year prison term. Now, beyond the legal wrangling, there's little question. Moscow enjoyed the political pressure building on the White House to get Greiner home. But there's also a certain logic to the Russian position.

Her conviction sent Greiner to prison, but what it also did was open the door, legally speaking, for her to be pardoned because Greiner had now been convicted of a crime. Okay. Well, this whole detention has been quite high profile in part because Greiner is such an accomplished and well-known athlete. And there has been a lot of activism surrounding her detention. Brinko, can you talk about that piece of this? Like what was the reaction like to her release? It's been really big, and from so many different sectors of society. Former President Barack Obama said he was grateful for Greiner's, quote, long overdue release.

The Phoenix Mercury, which is Greiner's basketball team, had had a regular count of the days that she was in detention. The team posted, no more days, she's coming home. And at the White House, Greiner's wife, Sherelle, was visibly moved. So over the last nine months, you all have been so privy to one of the darkest moments of my life. And so today I'm just standing here overwhelmed with emotions. Biden acknowledged that there was a lot of pressure that he was under in different ways. Brittany Greiner wrote him a letter this summer saying, quote, I'm terrified I might be here

forever. And as Charles pointed out, progress seemed to have stalled for a few months. But a few weeks ago, Biden said that he had hoped Putin would be more willing to discuss a prisoner exchange after the U.S. midterm elections were over. After the elections. OK, well, Charles, you have followed Greiner's case for months now. You've attended like every stage of her trial in Moscow. Can you just remind us of some of what you saw, what you heard during that time? Yeah, you know, this trial unfolded against the collapse in U.S.-Russian relations over the conflict in Ukraine. And it's a situation that made many feel Greiner was a hostage to geopolitics

rather than a defendant in a drug trial. As to the proceedings, you know, they took place in a small courtroom with six-foot-nine Greiner often in a cage. And it was incredibly hot there. It was over the summer. You know, at one point, a U.S. embassy official nearly fainted from the heat. And yet I was struck by how Griner just handled herself throughout. You know, she's very calm given circumstances. In fact, one of the few times I saw her grow openly emotional

was when her Russian teammates and coach came to testify on Griner's behalf. Despite her ordeal, despite everything, you know, there's clearly a lot of affection between them even now. Yeah. Well, tell us more about Victor Boot, the man exchanged for Greiner. Like, why did the Russians want him back so much? Well, Russia has wanted Boot back ever since he was detained, initially in Thailand in a U.S. sting operation in 2008. Bout has been colorfully labeled the merchant of death by the media,

but his story is more complicated. I mean, he's a one-time Soviet military translator who started a global gun-running business, arguably one of the world's most successful ones, providing arms to civil wars in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, even for the U.S. military operations in Iraq for a time. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a U.S. military operations in Iraq for a time. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a U.S. court in 2011 on narco-terrorism charges. In other words,

trafficking weapons that could kill Americans, not that necessarily did. Either way, Russia's government has always argued he was illegally extradited by the U.S., to the U.S., excuse me, and his case was an example of an American judicial overreach. And his release will certainly be celebrated here as well. Well, Franco, I mean, there's also another U.S. prisoner who's still detained in Russia, Paul Whelan. The White House had made it clear for months, right, like that they wanted Whelan to be part of this trade. And I'm wondering, did they say why Whelan wasn't included? And what have we heard from Whelan's family about this latest news? Well, Paul Whelan's brother, David, said in a statement that he was glad that Greiner was on

her way home, but that it was also a disappointment for the family and a, quote, catastrophe for Paul. They were thankful, though, that U.S. officials warned them in advance and did note that the Biden administration made the right decision, in their words, to make the deal that was possible rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to happen. Anne Piers Franco, Ordonez, and Charles Main speaking with my colleague Elsa Chang. I got a chance to put more questions about the deal for Griner's release to someone in a position to know. John Kirby is the spokesman for the White House National Security Council. I asked him about the final hours of those negotiations. This deal really kind of came to fruition over the last week or so, Mary Louise.

And it itself was the culmination of literally months of back and forth with the Russians on Brittany's case and Paul's as well. Well, that's part of why I asked because the outlines of this deal were floated over the summer and Russia didn't bite. Why not? We had floated a very serious proposal, didn't go anywhere for a little while, and we began to then float alternate proposals. Again, in our minds, getting both Brittany and Paul out. So we were trying to be as flexible as we could. But it really, this particular deal kind of came to closure in the last week or so. And it was apparent to us that it was either this or nothing. This was the deal we could get, and now was the moment we could get it.

And as we've said before, we felt like we had a moral obligation to take the Russians up on this to at least get one of the two home. You referenced there that there's another American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who is still in Russia. He's been detained there since 2018. Are you confirming there that the U.S. push was to make this a two-for-one, that you wanted to bring him home same time? I don't want to get too much into the details of the negotiations in terms of the specifics, but I can assure you that our efforts were designed to get both of them home. That was the goal. And we offered different permutations of deals to the Russians with that as our desired outcome. And again, we just weren't able to get that done today.

It was clear to us that the furthest we were going to be able to go was just getting Brittany out from Mr. Boot. And so we ended up taking that deal. But I want to stress that we are still in active discussions with the Russians now about Paul. We're not giving up on that. We're, as the president said, we're going to stay at that task. What leverage does the U.S. have now that Victor Boots' release is no longer available as a bargaining chip? treated Paul separately, differently, uniquely because of the sham espionage charges that they levied against him. So in their minds, they never really were that interested in Mr. Boot for Paul. They were only interested in Mr. Boot for Griner – for Brittany Griner, excuse me. For Brittany Griner, yeah. So they've held him apart as something separate.

They put him in a special category, and that has made the negotiation process difficult. But like I said, we're not considering it impossible. We're going to keep working on it. Still working on that front. Let's stay with Victor Boot, the convicted Russian arms dealer who has just been swapped for Brittany Greiner. Are you convinced he no longer poses a national security threat to the United States? Anytime we do a swap like this, we do a national security assessment of the implications. That was done in this case, and what I can tell you is we're going to stay vigilant.

Nothing's more important to the president than our national security, and we're going to defend that national security at every turn and as appropriate, whether that regards the behavior and conduct of Mr. Boot now that he's a free man or anyone else that might threaten our security. Forgive my jumping in. This is a guy nicknamed the Merchant of Death who Senator Bob Menendez, the Democrat who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, is calling his release a, quote, deeply disturbing decision. This was the deal we could get. Now is the moment we could that Mr. Boot is a free man. He still had another six or so years to serve.

It was never a life sentence. So at some point he was going to get out. It's a little earlier than planned. But the alternative would have been to leave Brittany Griner in a penal colony in Russia for a crime she didn't commit. That's John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Support for NPR and the following message come from Carnegie Corporation of New York, working to reduce political polarization through philanthropic support for education,

democracy, and peace. More information at carnegie.org.