One can be happy for Brittany Griner and her family that the Russians have finally released her from prison while at the same time be dismayed at the Biden administration's priorities.
While Griner had been in prison since last February other Americans have languished in the Russian prison system for much longer.
Fifty two year-old Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive, traveled to Moscow in December 2018 for a wedding and was detained by Russian authorities on espionage charges.
In 2020, the former Marine received a 16-year prison sentence in what the U.S. has called a sham trial.
Whelan was ordered to serve time at a prison labor camp in the province of Mordovia.
Last month, Whelan was moved to a prison hospital for undisclosed reasons.
Marc Fogel, a history teacher from Pittsburgh who taught the children of U.S. diplomats abroad, was detained in Moscow in August 2021. He had with him a small amount of medical marijuana he used for chronic back pain.
In June, Fogel was sentenced to 14 years at a labor camp. He's sixty-one years-old.
Sarah Krivanek, 46, moved to Russia from Fresno, California, five years ago to teach at a Russian private school.
Last year, Krivanek was involved in a domestic abuse situation with her boyfriend and allegedly grabbed a knife to defend herself, nicking him slightly. Krivanek was arrested by Russian authorities and detained for roughly a year despite her boyfriend retracting the charges.
She was released last month but detained again at a Moscow airport when she tried to leave the country. Krivanek is not incarcerated but is also not authorized to return home. She is waiting in a holding facility while she figures out how to leave Russia.
So, why was the Biden administration so determined to get Griner back that they were willing to overlook the plight of these other Americans and release to Russia Viktor Bout, a former Soviet military officer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization?
Is it because Griner is a celebrity - an African American, lesbian professional basketball player? It's hard to see what other reason Mr. Biden would've had to prioritize her release over that of Whelan, Fogel and Krivanek. She's famous and they're not.
It says a lot about both the U.S. and Russia that we prioritized the release of a celebrity over a former Marine and that the Russians were eager to have us release to them a man dubbed by our intelligence agencies "The Merchant of Death."
I wonder if the American negotiators played all their cards before acceding to Russia's demands to release Bout from Griner. Did they think to tell the Russians that either they release all four Americans post haste or the U.S. will stop reconfiguring the HIMAR missiles we're sending to Ukraine to limit their range to only fifty miles?
If the Americans are not released, our negotiators could've stipulated, the missiles we send the Ukrainians will be able to achieve their maximum range and reach Russian bases and troops inside both Crimea and Russia.
Maybe our negotiators could've thrown Bout in to sweeten the deal since he'd already served fifteen years of his sentence anyway.
The Russians could then be left to ponder whether holding on to innocent Americans was worth the humiliation and demoralization that would result from the loss of officers, men and material the rejiggered HIMARs would cause.
Did our people play this card? If not, why not?
