The Prisoner Exchange Agreement for Gwyneth Biden: Bringing Back the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in the Dark
“She’s safe. She’s on a plane. She was held under intolerable conditions in Russia for months, but is on her way home.
Biden’s administration was under increasing pressure to get her release, and they had a top priority in mind. She sent a letter to him in July, saying she might be here forever. Biden said last month that he hoped Putin would be more willing to discuss a prisoner exchange after the midterm elections were over.
A press release from Russia’s Foreign Ministry states that a prisoner was exchanged for a convicted Russian arms trader at the Abu Dhabi airport.
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 should not be interpreted as a new normal practice, but that there are times where there are no alternatives, a Biden official said.
The official said the administration felt that it was a moral and policy obligation to bring people who are being held hostage home.
We begin by asking ourselves how is it ok for someone to be put in a sham proceedings and then forced to spend time in a Russian penal colony. The official said that they considered that to be unacceptable.
Senior administration officials told reporters on a conference call later that the agreement to secure Griner’s release was made in recent days after months of talks and a variety of proposals — proposals that were aimed at also trying to secure Whelan’s release.
“This was not a situation where we had a choice of which American to bring home,” an official told reporters on a conference call. If you brought home one American, or if you brought home none, it was a choice.
After the swap was a success, US officials connected her to her family. That call “was as moving as it was unforgettable” to hear Griner speak on the phone with her wife, Cherelle, who was present for an Oval Office meeting, Secretary of State Tony Blinken said.
During her off season, a friend of Lady Gaga played for a Russian club and admitted that she earned more there than she did in the US. She said she wouldn’t come back, because she was displeased with the way he was treated.
She was sentenced by a Russian court to nine years in prison for carrying less than a gram of marijuana into Russia when she arrived in February of this year for play in the Russian women’s professional basketball league. She was moved to a prison colony in Mordovia 300 miles southeast of Moscow to begin serving her sentence.
The documents showed that the doctor wrote the prescriptions for the marijuana and thehash oil for pain management in the U.S.
The fate of the two-time Olympian Whelan, an American citizen, in a penal colony: A phone interview with Biden
Whelan – a US, Irish, British and Canadian citizen – is currently imprisoned in a Russian penal colony after he was arrested in December 2018 on espionage charges, which he has denied. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He, too, had been declared wrongly imprisoned by US officials.
Colas said that it’s not clear if the fans will see Griner on the basketball court in May, but that she is eager to use her power and influence to help others.
The US State Department will make sure that assistance is offered in an appropriate manner to Brittney and her family.
The swap that took months to negotiate and has drawn mixed reactions in the US, took place at an airport tarmac in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
The father might want to see her at home, but he also had a happy phone reunion with his daughter, she said.
Jackson Lee – who represents the 18th Congressional District of Texas including Griner’s hometown of Houston – said aspects of the two-time Olympian’s current welfare “have to be reviewed.”
“We hear that she has spoken to her family members here, she sounded good, looking forward to seeing them, and we also know that she walked on her own capabilities both in terms of the swap and then when she landed in San Antonio.”
Whelan already sent a message through US representatives who spoke with him in recent days: “Please tell Brittney that Paul said he’s happy she’s home,” he told her, according to Colas.
While many are celebrating Griner’s return home – seen as a diplomatic win between two of the world’s largest nations at fierce odds over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – the fate of Whelan’s release remains unclear.
The US tried to persuade Russia to swap both Griner and Whelan for Bout, but Russian officials would not budge on the matter, with Russia saying the Americans’ cases were handled differently based on the charges each of them faced.
A precarious situation has to be resolved soon, according to a phone interview with Whelan. I hope Biden and his administration are prepared for the price they will have to pay to get me home.
Last week President Joe Biden claimed that this was not a choice of the American people to make. Russia is treating Paul’s case differently then it is treating Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”
Paul Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday that the public discussion surrounding a potential swap has “been very difficult for my family to hear,” adding she believes her brother is being “discussed as if his only value was what we would have to give up for him.”
Elizabeth said her brother is worth more than any Russian criminal and that she made it clear to the US government.
The pay disparity between women athletes and men in the US has once again been spotlighted as a result of the return home of Griner, which has led to more players going abroad to make more money.
“For too long women sports have been undervalued, under-invested in,” said Engelbert, who noted that less than 1% of all corporate sponsorship funding goes to women’s sports.
The NBA is a fairly old sports league that was established in 1996. Still, she added the organization is working on a three-to-five-year plan to drive up players’ pay.
As the changes happen, I believe players will keep playing overseas, especially because the average time in the NBA is about five years,” she said.
We will not stop them from making more money outside of the US during the summer months. We want them to play at the highest level once they are back here at home.
When he landed in Venezuela and became a lawyer: “Because I was a criminal lawyer and I didn’t try to make a living from nothing”
People will watch if you promote the women just like the men. People will come to watch if we get the brand partnerships behind us and people know who we are. It will grow.”
While on a business trip to Venezuela with other executives from Citgo, Toledo was kidnapped and held for nearly a year before he was released as part of a prisoner swap.
Toledo said he was part of a program in San Antonio that involved six days with a group of psychologists. The program was important for him and he hopes that other people will take advantage of it.
“When I just landed in San Antonio … I felt great to taste the freedom and the smell of freedom. You don’t think of any aspects as consequences of your captivity. But as the time passed by, as you start getting into the normal life, you notice that reintegration means a challenge,” he told CNN’s Pamela Brown.
Toledo had to rebuild his relationship with his family after spending five years in captivity, including his granddaughters who were only babies at the time.
Toledo returned to the US and experienced health issues such as difficulty sleeping, and everyday tasks, like driving became sources of anxiety.
The Love of God: Gary Griner’s release from prison on a Russian drug charge in February 2001 — an end to her life in the United Arab Emirates
It is very important to feel the presence of your family and your family loves you. Because the feel of love is something so important,” he said.
After being arrested on drug charges at the Russian airport in February and being sentenced to nine years in prison, the release of basketball player Gary Griner took months to negotiate and marked an end to months in confinement.
“Yesterday my heart was made whole thanks to the collective efforts of MANY! I’m humbled by their hearts. Humankind is about care for another, a stranger to some and a friend to some. The wife of the man wrote.
I want to personally say thank you to a few people that helped make it possible for me to see my wife, as we start our journey of healing our minds, body and spirits. Her statement continued.
Angel said she is confident that Griner will eventually return to basketball, despite knowing she will need time and space.
We’re going to give her time and space so that she can be evaluated, mentally, emotionally and physically.
The basketball star was released Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia for notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, and she arrived at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio Friday for a routine evaluation.
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.
During her time there, she had to cut her dreadlocks in order to live easier during the Russian winter, her lawyer told CNN.
The 6-foot-9 gold medalist was too tall to be comfortable sitting at a work table and her hand was too big to use a sewing machine, so she had to carry fabric all day.
Carstens, 19, is an American-American Amateur in Russia. She stayed 10 months in a residential environment with her husband, Cherelle, and three other diplomats
Richardson, who was an ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration, said they had to give them some time to adjust because they had a bad experience in Russian prisons.
It wasn’t until he boarded the plane and told her that he was here to take her home that it felt real.
I told Britney that she must have been through a lot over the last 10 months. Here is your seat. Please feel free to decompress. Carstens said that we’ll give you your space.
She said, ‘Oh no.’ I’ve been in prison for 10 months now listening to Russian, I want to talk. So first of all, who are these guys? And she moved right past me and went to every member on that crew, looked them in the eyes, shook their hands and asked about them and got their names, making a personal connection with them. It was wonderful, according to Carstens.
She arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio on Friday and is currently staying with her wife, Cherelle, in a residential environment that her agent decorated with a Christmas tree.
For Griner – who spent nearly 10 months in detention in Russia – “normal” has meant indulging in her favorites: a Dr Pepper soda, the first drink she had in the airplane hangar after landing.
Colas said the athlete has been eating more nutrition than she did in jail. She said her energy level was high.
“I think it’s fair to say that her picking up a ball voluntarily and the first thing being a dunk … it was really encouraging,” Colas said. “She was really excited.”
“She’s had a lot of psychological support,” Colas said. “The resources are very robust. It is very supportive and centered in the way it is. It’s about her developing agency.”
Repatrixing Trevor Reed: What has been Missed in the U.S. Army in the last eight years? An update from Colas
The Department of Defense created a post isolation program, which other wrongly imprisoned Americans, including Trevor Reed, have participated in.
Colas said that she is thinking about the future. She is speaking about her new position in order to help other people come home.