Russian media has released video showing the release of Brittney Griner for Russia’s Merchant of Death, Victor Bout. The trade, which was confirmed on Thursday, saw the WNBA player traded for an arms dealer who was arrested in 2008 during a sting in Thailand.
The video shows Griner signing forms and exiting what appears to be the penal colony that she was stationed at and was supposed to spend the next nine years at. It shows her entering a vehicle and bringing her to a plane, where she is asked by a Russian official how her mood is, to which she simply replies, “happy.”
The video also shows Bout, the Merchant of Death who was traded for the basketball player, getting on board a plane, where his blood pressure is taken. A conversation then takes place in Russia.
The White House had difficulty fully defending the trade between the two, due to the perceived inequality of the trade noticed by many. Karine Jean Pierre, the White House press secretary, was asked by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy why the trade unfolded the way that it did.
Jean-Pierre on Brittney Griner’s release: "She represents the best of America."pic.twitter.com/6ZfRryEkp8
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) December 8, 2022
“Look, you know, I’ve talked about this. And I’ll say this again. Here were our choices. Our choices was Brittany, or no one at all, bring home one American or no American at all. And that’s that,” Jean-Pierre said. Doocy replied, “They gave up a professional athlete. We gave up a prolific arms dealer who was convicted of trying to kill Americans, who was called the ‘Merchant of Death’.”
You guys know how to make sure Putin keeps arresting Americans and severely punishing them?
Trade him an arms dealer aka “The Merchant of Death” someone guilty of conspiring to kill Americans and aiding a terrorist organization for an America Hating WNBA activist.
Great trade!
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 8, 2022
How long till other countries realize that they too can take total advantage of the United States and get whatever lopsided trade they could want by simply kidnapping, harassing, and wrongfully imprisoning Americans abroad?
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 8, 2022