Brittney Griner Goes Free The WNBA star is released in a prisoner swap with Russia, but Paul Whelan is left behind.
The release of WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday from a Russian prison labor camp is welcome news. The price was high, as the White House negotiated a prisoner swap for notorious Russian arms deal Viktor Bout, but there should be relief when any American is sprung from hostile and unjust captivity.
Yes, Ms. Griner was foolish to enter Russia in February with vape cartridges containing hashish amid rising U.S.-Russia tensions. But she was clearly treated harshly, and handed a nine-year sentence, because she is American. She was arrested shortly before Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion, and he viewed her as political leverage.
Some on the American right are grousing that, at the height of the George Floyd protests, Ms. Griner called on the WNBA to stop playing the national anthem before games—implying she had forfeited her right to the government’s support. But political views should be irrelevant when it comes to rescuing Americans held abroad as political hostages.
More troubling is that the prisoner swap didn’t include Paul Whelan, a former Marine and businessman held in Russia on trumped-up espionage charges. Ms. Griner is a celebrity with prominent backers, while Mr. Whelan’s public lobbyists are few beyond his family. President Biden said Thursday that Mr. Whelan is “unjustly detained”—and vowed that his Administration will keep fighting for his release.
The larger issue here isn’t whether Ms. Griner’s cultural status helped her gain release. What matters is the recognition that a U.S. passport means something. The world becomes a much more dangerous place for all Americans when bad foreign actors think they can get away with abusing any U.S. citizen.
Welcome home, Ms. Griner, and we hope you take up the cause of Paul Whelan in the same way so many others took up yours.
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