The bare facts are these:
Griner was arrested in February at a Moscow-area airport with vape cartridges containing marijuana oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty at her subsequent trial and, last month, was moved to a penal colony with a grim reputation in the western region of Mordovia.
In order to get her out, the Biden administration agreed to release a notorious Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, who had been serving a 25-year sentence imposed in 2012 for crimes including conspiracy to kill Americans.
Importantly, the deal failed to spring from captivity another American in Russian detention, Paul Whelan, who was arrested in 2018 on espionage charges. Whelan proclaims his innocence despite having been convicted by a Russian court in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Griner is a Black, lesbian athlete whose plight became a cause celebre, especially in liberal circles and in the worlds of sport and popular culture.
Whelan is a white, middle-aged former Marine whose family has struggled to get his case into the headlines at all.
Bout, for his part, has a story lurid and macabre enough to inspire a Hollywood movie and earn him the nickname “The Merchant of Death.”
“The entire decision to release Griner and then the response to it is emblematic of America,” said Tobe Berkovitz, a Boston University professor emeritus who specializes in political communication.
“One part of America is celebrating the release of an African American gay woman, and another part of America is bemoaning the continuing long imprisonment of a white Marine.”
There is also the broader backdrop of Russia’s war in Ukraine to consider, as well as the frayed nature of American political culture.
“This is really the perfect storm,” said Democratic strategist Joel Payne. He added that, within the case, there are “a number of thorny domestic cultural issues exploding, along with difficult geopolitical challenges outside the US … What happens when those things meet?”
Carlson, in a segment on his show Thursday — the day of Griner’s release — put the contrast between Griner and Whelan in especially stark terms.
“The former Marine, who has been there for four years already, gets left behind in Russia, while the celebrity athlete [who] gets busted with hash oil is championed by her celebrity media friends like Gayle King [of CBS News] and is home in just months,” Carlson complained.
“If you are someone who thought Brittney Griner should have spent nine years in a penal colony, I think it probably says something about the value you put on her as a Black woman, an athlete and an LGBT woman.”
Cherelle Griner, Brittney’s wife, speaking alongside Biden at the White House on Thursday, said the couple “will remain committed to the work of getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today as we celebrate BG being home.”
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