A deeply disappointed citizen from a penal colony to be released from jail: “It’s been a mistaken, but it didn’t work”

In a phone call from Russia, where he is being held in a penal colony, he said that he was surprised not to have been part of the swap with Bout and that he was disappointed the Biden administration hadn’t done more to secure his release.

“I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred,” he said. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”

“This is a precarious situation that needs to be resolved quickly,” a deeply disappointed Whelan told CNN’s State Department producer Jennifer Hansler in an exclusive phone interview. “I would hope that (Biden) and his administration would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point.”

“I want to be very clear – this was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home. A senior administration official said that the choice was between bringing home a particular American or not.

I was led to believe that the governments were negotiating and that something will happen soon, he said.

“That raises a lot of concerns because none of it is true. He said that the United States may not be able to provide what they are attempting to get out of, but this is political extortion.

Her case also served to amplify the plight of Whelan, whose arrest on espionage charges led to a conviction in 2020 and a 16-year prison sentence. US officials have called the trial unfair and say the charges are manufactured.

David Whelan: Getting a message out to his governments about the possibility of extradited him back to the U.S.

Whelan said he hopes that Biden and his administration “would do everything they could to get me home, regardless of the price they might have to pay at this point.”

It is clear that the US government has no interest in having Paul Whelan extradited to Russia. David Whelan said in a statement that Paul will remain a prisoner until that changes.

National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby said Thursday that the US is “not back to square one” in its negotiations for Whelan’s release.

I am just trying to show how it is, not shine a negative spotlight on Russia in any way. He said he wants to get a message through to his governments that he needs help.

“If it is a risk, then it’s a risk I am willing to take because I think the message needs to get out,” he added. “And I’ve kind of sat quietly by for a long time, and at this point I’m frustrated that nothing’s being done, and I just don’t know what roadmap people are looking at to get me home,” Whelan said.

He told CNN that he was worried that he might not make it out and that he didn’t know how he’d come back.

Human Rights Report on a Former Russian Prisoner Swap, with Anouncement of a U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Macedonian Republic

“We only have cold water. It’s dirty everywhere. There really isn’t any maintenance. It’s 30-50 years old, things are extremely old, and what isn’t broken doesn’t work. We don’t have cleaning supplies. The medical care is not good. We’re on our own to take care of ourselves.

Whelan said he tries to keep sane by reading “a lot of books” and writing letters. He said he likes to receive letters and cards, “sports scores and news articles and things like that,” because “that sort of thing coming in for our world makes me remember that our world still exists.”

Two-time Olympic gold medal winner and the first openly gay athlete signed an endorsement contract by Nike, who also has a deal with seven-time NHL All-Star and Phoenix Mercury player, Phoenix Mercury player and seven-time WNBA All-Star,Brittney Griner. She played basketball during the NBA’s off-season.

There had been concern about the health and well being of Griner, who is Black and a lesbian, while detained in Russia. Though Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, homophobia and discrimination still persists. Putin signed a bill that expanded anti-LGBTQ laws.

According to a recent United States State Department human rights report, political prisoners are often placed in harsh conditions where they can be subjected to solitary confinement or stay in a psychiatric unit. The report says that in a few instances, inmates in Russian penal colonies have been tortured to death. The report also said that there are reports of prison authorities grooming inmates to abuse other inmates.

The foreign ministry said that they were able to agree with the American side on a Bout exchange. “The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland.”

The US had grown confident that a resolution to the case would be possible by the start of this week. The prisoner swap was set up after Biden gave final approval to the parameters of the deal.

One US official explained that the decision was only shared with a tight knit group of US officials, in order to prevent the news from breaking before Griner arrived in the US. US officials were concerned about Russia pulling back on the promise after repeated warnings from the Kremlin that the matter should not be discussed in public. They were aware that the war in Ukraine had the ability to derail the plan, so they were wary of any major provocations. So concerned were White House officials that the fragile deal could collapse that Biden didn’t sign the commutation papers for Bout until Griner was on the ground in Abu Dhabi and in the sight of a US greeting party.

It would seem like a good deal if the American was swapped for the Russian arms trafficker known as the Merchant of Death.

Bill Richardson, a former New Mexico governor, told CNN he was aware that it would be at least a few more days before she got out. Richardson and his center privately work on behalf of families of hostages and detainees. He previously traveled to Russia to discuss Griner’s release, as well that of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who remains in custody.

We believe there will be need for her to have health care before she is ready to return home. I don’t think that that will take a very long time,” Kirby told CNN’s Kate Bolduan. The doctors will have to work with the family on that. That is going to be the main focus now, is just making sure that we look after her well being before she’s able to, you know, to get on her way.”

She’s okay. She is on a plane. She’s on her way home after months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable conditions,” Biden said from the Roosevelt Room.

On the release of Paul Whelan, the fifth American detained in Russia, and the homecoming of a prominent American, Brittney Griner

The U.S. government has long resisted prisoner swaps out of concern that it could encourage the imprisonment of more Americans abroad. The exchange for Bout shouldn’t be perceived as a new normal practice, but as a time when there are no alternatives, said a Biden official.

The official said the administration felt a “moral obligation,” as well as a policy obligation, to bring people who are being held hostage or detained home.

“We start by asking ourselves this question: How is it acceptable for someone like Brittney Griner to be put through sham proceedings and forced to spend [time] … in a Russian penal colony, in horrific circumstances that she did not deserve? The official said that they regard that as unacceptable.

Cherelle Griner said she was overwhelmed by emotions, expressing gratitude to Biden, Vice President Harris and other members of the administration involved in securing her wife’s release. She expressed her gratitude to the agent and others.

She was sentenced last August by a Russian court to nine years in prison for carrying less than a gram of hash oil into Russia when she arrived in February of this year for play in the Russian women’s professional basketball league. Last month, she was transferred to a prison colony in Mordovia — 300 miles southeast of Moscow — to begin serving out her sentence.

The documents show that she was legally prescribed the pain killer in the U.S. and that she mistakenly packed two items in her luggage.

As the Biden administration celebrates the homecoming of one prominent American detained in Russia — basketball star Brittney Griner — it’s pledging to continue working to secure the release of another who’s been there even longer.

The swap, which US President Joe Biden confirmed on Thursday, did not include another American that the State Department has declared wrongfully detained, Paul Whelan. Whelan was arrested on alleged espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison in a trial that US officials have called unfair.

At the end of November, 52-year-old Whelan was briefly transferred from a penal colony to a prison hospital. He spoke to his family last Friday, after a week of silence that had prompted concern in the White House over his whereabouts and condition.

“He is probably as well as you could be in a Russian labor camp,” his twin brother David told NPR in April. “They don’t give prisoners enough nutrition, and they don’t care about prisoners at all.” There is a lot of abuse. I think he does his best to stay out of people’s way.

Biden stressed that efforts to secure Whelan’s release are ongoing, and said his administration is in close touch with Whelan’s family (the U.S. official said Biden intends to speak with them too).

They said in the statement that they were told before the prisoner swap was about the fact that Whelan would be left behind.

David said that the early warning meant that their family had prepared for a public disappointment. “And a disaster for Paul.” I don’t know if he knows about it yet, but he will learn from Russian media. Our parents have been calling him frequently since he came back to IK 17 and they will speak to him soon.

According to Whelan’s brother, no one is more happy for a wrongful prisoner to be freed than the person’s family.

Jonathan Franks, a spokesperson for the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, said in a statement that while “we celebrate Brittney’s homecoming, our hearts break for the Whelan family.”

He said that Paul Whelan had been let down at least three times by 2 Presidents. “He deserves better from his government and our campaign implores President Biden to secure Paul’s immediate return using all available tools.”

Peter Bergen is a professor of practice at Arizona State University and a vice president at New America. Bergen is the author of “The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World.” His views are not reflected in this commentary. View more opinion on CNN.

We used to think primarily of American hostages being taken by terrorist groups like ISIS or al Qaeda, but in the past few years we have seen an increase in governments taking Americans as de facto hostages, according to a recent report by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, which advocates for Americans who are held hostage and “wrongful detainees.”

Griner is simply the most famous example of this and has served to bring the issue to the attention of many who otherwise might not have been aware of the dangers that face Americans who travel to countries such as Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela – countries that are known to detain Americans to gain leverage over the United States.

Or consider the case of Mark Frerichs, an American contractor working in Afghanistan, who was held for more than two years by the Taliban (now the de facto Afghan government). Frerichs was released in exchange for clemency for Haji Bashir Noorzai, who was in prison in the US on drug trafficking charges for 17 years. One of the most-wanted drug dealers in the year before he was killed was the one named by the Bush administration. The Taliban regard Noorzai as a key ally and have been trying to get him released.

The seven Americans that were held in Venezuela for many years were exchanged for two people who had been jailed in the US for conspiring to smuggle cocaine. Both of the convicted drug dealers are nephews of Venezuela’s first lady.

The Biden-Giner Whelan Decision and the Birth of the American Dream: State of the Matter after Griner’s Arrival in Abu Dhabi

How will the price be for releasing Whelan? Surely it won’t be nothing. The Biden administration must make a decision about what price it is willing to pay.

It was certain that the conditions were set by Russian President Putin himself, according to one US official.

With winter approaching at the penal colony where Griner was being held, Biden faced a singularly presidential decision. When she was younger, she promised she would end the nightmare that she and her family were enduring.

Even though a victory is possible, the inability to secure Whelan’s freedom and inevitable blowback over the release of one the most prolific arms dealers of the past decades would prevent it.

Law enforcement officials objected, but were told the decision had been made. For law enforcement officials from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which spent years and elaborate efforts to try to capture Bout, the release of Bout raised additional concerns about the precedent the deal could set.

Moments earlier in Abu Dhabi, Griner had stepped from her transport plane into the Middle East air – fifty degrees warmer than Moscow – and smiled, a US official said.

Griner’s wife, who arrived in Washington on Wednesday, was invited to an early morning meeting at the White House set for Thursday. She was initially scheduled to meet with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who had briefed her several times over the course of the negotiations.

The initial step of what will likely be a difficult and emotional process for a professional athlete was marked by the flight to freedom of Griner. Over the years, a number of support programs developed across the US government to address the needs of prisoners and hostages returning to the US have been prepared.

“The fact remains that she’s lost months of her life, experienced a needless trauma, and she deserves space, privacy, and time with her loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrongfully detained,” he said.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/08/politics/biden-griner-whelan-decision/index.html

Bout’s release as a diplomatic triumph: The tragic paradox of the failure of the U.S. to secure the release of Paul Whelan

The US tried to explain other options, other categories of options, to create the space to have haggling that we want to have, according to a senior administration official.

The person said that if you’re haggling, you’re getting closer. “And instead we have had no change or softening of a response that is simply a demand for something we just can’t provide because it’s not something in our control.”

One reality the assessment took into account, the official said, is the fact that Bout has been in prison for over a decade and has not been actively engaged in any recent criminal activity.

The security assessment conducted on Bout was thorough, but the official wouldn’t say how the US was sure that the Russian arms dealer wouldn’t do anything to endanger the country down the road.

The publicity surrounding Griner, including celebrities posting criticism of the Biden White House on social media for not moving more quickly to secure her release, appeared to raise the Russian price for Griner’s release, law enforcement officials said.

That added to concerns that the deal increases the likelihood that Russia, Iran and other countries could use the arrest of Americans to try to use the publicity to gain concessions the US otherwise wouldn’t give.

Speaking Thursday, an administration official rejected the notion that Bout’s release set a new precedent for securing the release of Americans and said hostile governments would be mistaken if they interpreted Thursday’s swap that way.

The official said governments around the world wouldn’t be wise to draw any inference that this had become the norm. “But in the rare case when there is an imperative to Americans home, which is a real priority for this president, there sometimes are no alternatives left, and a heavy price has to be paid.”

It goes beyond the bottom line of the exchange to have the president swap a woman for a man. It represented a humane resolution to a painful dilemma that came after tortuous talks with a Russian regime that treats people as geopolitical pawns every day. In this case, the Biden administration’s moral compass is not in line with that of the Russian President, who is currently unleashing a terrible assault on Ukrainian civilians.

But the tragic counterpoint to this diplomatic triumph – Biden’s failure to also secure the release of Paul Whelan, another American incarcerated in a Russian penal colony – underscored the unforgiving moral conundrum he faced. And it prompted top Republicans to charge that he had prioritized a basketball superstar over an ex-marine who benefited from a vocal political pressure campaign on Biden.

In addition to facilitating the exchange along with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia played a part in securing the release of US citizens captured fighting in Ukraine earlier this year. Whether the kingdom, which has relations with both Moscow and Washington and is seeking to increase its global leadership role, might emerge as a mediator over Ukraine remains to be seen. Biden will travel to the country earlier this year to greet its ruthless Crown Prince Mohammed bin Laden with a fistbump, if the recent smoothing of US- Russia exchanges is any indication.

Ultimately, it’s impossible for there not to be a sour aftertaste when dealing with an adversary as inhumane as Putin. But it is the job of a president to weigh these competing dynamics within the context of America’s national goals and duty to its citizens.

This adds another layer of complication for Biden as he seeks to get Whelan free, since it involves another government and would require German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to potentially agree to supersede his country’s own legal system. Whether the new German leader has the political capacity to do so is uncertain and what kind of Russian concession Berlin might need is also unclear.

An administration official said on Thursday that there is a belief in the White house that the US has to give something different to the Russians, according to CNN.

While Biden is being castigated by some political opponents in Washington for doing a bad deal, administration officials insisted that he got the best one on offer.

Farkas: Why did Putin and Maduro Go to War? How the Russians fought over Whelan’s freedom, and why did Putin went to war?

Evelyn Farkas, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, told CNN she thought Putin was never going to hand over Whelan and all along wanted to swap only Griner for Bout.

Putin needs a win and a victory in Russia to convince the people there that he’s making a good decision by going to war.

The fierce political divides that challenge every US foreign policy decision did not take long to bubble over after she was freed, along with a nasty reaction on social media as some conservatives questioned her patriotism.

Another Republican, Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida described the deal to free Griner in a Twitter post as “shameful” and accused the administration of “giving priority to a celebrity over a veteran.”

The challenge is that the regimes are aware of this. This is why (President Nicolas) Maduro traded five Citgo executives – who were lured to Venezuela to get arrested – for his nephews who are convicted drug traffickers,” Rubio said.

“The reason the Iranian regime, the Taliban, Putin himself, continue to take Americans hostage is we continue to make concessions. When should we start stipulating terms to these regimes?

What is Russia get out of this? An American who was wrongly imprisoned is going back home. It’s something to celebrate.”

“We have shown an openness to talk about that which is actually available to us and gotten only in response a demand for something not available to us,” the official said, reiterating that the Russians refused what had been offered to secure the release of Whelan.

The official said there was a willingness to pay a very big price for the President. We have made it clear to the Russians that we are open to having a discussion about some of the things we can deliver. It would be somebody in our custody.”

According to CNN, Vadim Krasikov, a Russian who is in German custody, was one of Moscow’s requests, but the official did not rule out that he would be released again.

The Russians haven’t floated it yet: Vinnik’s extradition to the US during the talks with James Whelan

Demands related to the war in Ukraine did not come up in the negotiations to secure Griner’s release and attempt to secure Whelan’s, the official said, adding that the US would not make concessions on that front.

“We’ve obviously thought about why that might be the case” that the Russians didn’t float it, the official said, “and I think we credit it to the fact that we’ve been so crystal clear, so consistent, that it is not for us to negotiate how that horrific situation gets resolved.”

The official said that it was not for bargaining if it were raised. The future of another country is not for bargaining and the defense of democracy against autocracy is not for bargaining.

The President and his team will probably have to look at what they have that is valuable to these people, or I will be here for a long time, according to Whelan.

The US made several other offers to the Russians in order to get them to agree to swap James Whelan for another person. Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national extradited to the US in August, was among the names floated by the US. The US also offered to trade Roman Seleznev, a convicted Russian cyber-criminal currently serving a 14-year sentence in the US, sources said.

Since Vinnik’s extradition to the US in August, Bélot has appealed directly to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to help secure Vinnik’s release from US custody.

The National Security Council declined to comment. A senior Biden administration official acknowledged to CNN on Thursday night that the Russian side had repeatedly demanded someone not even in US custody, even as the US made a number of different proposals. In the end, the Russians kept asking for the same thing that the US could simply not deliver on, the official said

Viktor Bout and his wife Maria Blagovolina, the former basketball star of the United States, arriving at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio

Freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout said on Saturday he “wholeheartedly” supports Moscow’s so-called “military operation” in Ukraine and that if he had the opportunity and necessary skills, he would “certainly go as a volunteer.”

Bout said that he always had a portrait of Putin in his prison cell. Why not? I am very proud that we have a president that is Putin.

The basketball star – who was released Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia for notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout – arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for a routine evaluation early Friday, and officials have not specified how long she will be there.

During her time there, Griner had to cut her now-famous dreadlocks to make life easier during the Russian winter, Griner’s Russian lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, told ESPN – and confirmed to CNN.

Most of the women in the penal colony worked sewing uniforms, but the 6-foot-9 Olympic gold medalist was too tall to sit at a work table and her hands were too big to manage the sewing, so she carried fabric all day, her attorney said.

The US State Department is focused on making sure that the well-being of her family is priority and that all available assistance is offered in an appropriate manner.

“We’ve got to give them a little space, a little time to readjust because they’ve had a horrendous experience in these Russian prisons,” said Richardson, who served as US ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration.

On the day of her release, Griner was given a sense she would be going home, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, who led the mission to conduct the prisoner exchange in the United Arab Emirates, told CNN.

It did not feel real until he told her that he had come to take her home on behalf of the President of the United States, Joe Biden.

“When she finally got on to the US plane, I said, ‘Brittney, you must have been through a lot over the last 10 months. You are in the seat. Please feel free to decompress. We’ll give you your space,’” Carstens recalled.

She told me that she did not want to. I’ve been in prison for 10 months now listening to Russian, I want to talk. But first, who are these guys? She moved past me and looked at every member of that crew and asked about them and also made a personal connection with them. It was really amazing,” Carstens said.

An Interacting WNBA Basketball Commissioner: After 15 Years in Captivity, Melvin Toledo Returned to the Oil and Gas Industry

Griner’s friend, WNBA player Angel McCoughtry, said she knows Griner will need time and space, but believes she’ll eventually return to the basketball court.

We want to see her but we will give her time and space to get evaluated and treated, the Commissioner said.

After enduring years of captivity, it can take a long time for a person to reintegrate into society. Toledo was released in October – also as part of a prisoner swap – after being detained while on a 2017 business trip to Venezuela with other oil and gas executives from the Citgo Corporation.

Toledo spent five years in captivity, and after he came home, he was plagued by problems like insomnia, and he was anxious about mundane tasks like driving.

Toledo said he was part of a six day program that included a group of psychologists. He hopes that Griner could take advantage of similar resources as the program was extremely important for his re-integration.