Photo Credit: Dmitry Serebryakov / DPA; Christophe Archambault / AFP

The White House Slams Russia For ‘Bad Faith’ Counteroffer To United States’ Brittney Griner Prisoner Swap Proposal

Russia and the U.S. are currently negotiating about a prisoner swap, that would send Brittney Griner and  Paul Whelan, who has been held by Russia since 2018, home.

As previously reported, president Joe Biden and his administration have offered to exchange Viktor Bout, as part of a deal that would send Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, who has been held by Russia since 2018, home.

Bout used his air transport companies to smuggle weapons from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s, was convicted by a jury in New York City of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization, and was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in 2011. His person has been the inspiration for Nicholas Cage’s character in the Lord of War.

But while this swap already feels relatively ‘unfair’, if we take the respective criminal offenses into consideration, Russia reportedly wants even more in return.

According to CNN, the Russians then communicated that they also wanted Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in December of murdering a former Chechen fighter in Berlin, and sentenced to life in prison, released.

This counter offer now led to John Kirby, the Biden administration’s National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, calling it ‘a bad faith attempt to avoid a very serious offer and proposal that the United States has put forward”.

Per Insider:

“Holding two American citizens hostage in exchange for an assassin in a third-party country is not a serious counteroffer,” Kirby said, adding: “We urge Russia to take [our] offer seriously.”