Nationalists cheer – Replaced: Kremlin brought home “dealer of death”.

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In Moscow, nationalist circles welcome the homecoming of Viktor Bout, the ‘merchant of death’. The arms dealer imprisoned in the US was exchanged on Thursday for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who is being held in Russia for drug possession.

Despite the enormous tensions in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, Washington and Moscow had agreed on the sensational prisoner exchange.

Exchange took place at Abu Dhabi airport
American basketball player Griner, who has been sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia, and arms dealer Bout, who is behind bars in the US, were flown to the United Arab Emirates, where the prisoner exchange took place at Abu Dhabi airport.

The athlete was caught earlier this year with a small amount of vape cartridges and hashish at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and sentenced to nine years in a trial that has been criticized as politically motivated.

Putin campaigned for Bout’s release
Russian human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova stressed that President Vladimir Putin personally campaigned for Bout’s release. Especially in Russia, the deal is celebrated in right-wing circles: “The exchange of Bouts is more than beneficial: in 2019, the Russian authorities offered to release 15 Americans for his return, the process now went according to Formula 1.” to 1,” Russian Defense Ministry-affiliated military blog Rybar wrote Thursday. In addition, Moscow did not need to release a valuable spy or mercenary, just “an ordinary basketball player”.

Criticism from American Republicans
The Washington government justified its action after criticism from American Republicans, who consider American Paul Whelan, who is still in prison in Russia, to have been abandoned. “It wasn’t like we had to choose between Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told CNN. It was about releasing one prisoner instead of no prisoner. The Russians blocked American proposals to release Whelan. The former marine was arrested in Russia in 2018 and convicted of alleged espionage.

Source: Krone

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