The sports world was thrilled WNBA star Brittney Griner was released on Thursday, but a ton of people were unhappy about another American being left in Russia.
NBA analyst Charles Barkley was happy to see Brittney Griner come home after ten months, but he also called the moment ‘bittersweet.’ During an appearance on CNN, the NBA hall of famer stated how Paul Whelan was still in priosn in Russia while bringing up concerns about the release of convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
“It’s a great day for the NBA, the WNBA, Brittney and her family. But it’s also a bittersweet day,” he said. “Mr. Whelan is still over there — and we got a scumbag arms dealer that might go out and kill other people.
“On one hand I’m really, really happy for our NBA and WNBA family. But man, you’ve got to feel for Mr. Whelan.”
Negotiations to swap Russian “Merchant of Death” arms dealer Viktor Bout for both Griner and Whelan broke down over Russian demands that convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov be included in the deal.
Russia claims that Whelan is an American agent and insisted that he would only be exchanged for a Russian counterpart or someone of similar stature. Russia was willing to trade Griner for Bout because it considers both of them criminals, the New York Times said Friday.
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The 32-year-old Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February and was serving a nine-year sentence after pleading guilty to drug charges for possessing two vape cartridges containing less than a gram of cannabis oil.
Whelan was arrested in 2018 while in Moscow to attend a friend’s wedding and is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of what the US says are baseless espionage charges.
