'Merchant of Death' Finally Reveals What Happened the Moment He Saw Brittney Griner: 'I Was a Little Shocked'
Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer exchanged for WNBA star Brittney Griner in a high-profile prisoner swap in December, has spoken to the U.S. media for the first time since his release.
In an interview that debuted Friday on ESPN.com, Bout — nicknamed “the Merchant of Death” — recalled his initial reaction to seeing the 6-foot-9 center for the Phoenix Mercury.
“Immediately I was a little shocked of seeing her without her signature braids,” he told ESPN reporter T.J. Quinn. “She was way taller than me, and I just shake the hand. I said, ‘I wish you good luck.’ And we both went to our planes.”
U.S. and Russian authorities completed the swap at an airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Bout and Griner briefly encountered one another on the tarmac.
Russian officials detained Griner at a Moscow airport on Feb. 17, 2022 — one week before Russian forces invaded Ukraine. She was arrested on a narcotics smuggling charge after cannabis oil was found in her luggage.
A Russian court convicted her on Aug. 4, 2022, and sentenced her to nine years in prison.
Meanwhile, Bout was serving a lengthy prison sentence of his own. In 2011, a U.S. court convicted him of conspiring to kill Americans and conspiring to sell weapons to a Colombian terrorist organization, according to the Department of Justice.
The disparity between the two crimes came up during the ESPN interview.
“She was convicted for trafficking 0.7 grams of cannabis oil. You were convicted for conspiracy to kill Americans, trying to sell arms to a terrorist organization. And you saw that there was a great deal of outrage from some in this country. What do you say to them?” Quinn asked.
Bout replied that it depends on one’s perspective.
“Well, think of this, that the same outrage was in Russia when I was sentenced to 25 years. Many people would say, ‘For what? Just for talking? Are you serious?'” he said.
“There is not even a proper translation to Russian of the term of ‘conspiracy.’ We don’t have such even the legal term. So this is the same kind of outrage in Russia about my case and about many other cases,” Bout said.
On Griner’s ordeal, however, he expressed empathy.
“Of course I feel bad or sorry for any person who’s gonna be used as a pawn despite whether they committed something or not,” Bout said.
Quinn asked him if he believed Griner had become a pawn. Bout made it clear that the situation involved more than one pawn.
“But definitely that the normal person has to pay a price because politicians on the both sides trying to play chess on this big chessboard which they call geopolitics,” he said.
Certainly, most people in the U.S. regarded Griner’s prison sentence as harsh, cruel and politically motivated. There seemed no comparison to Bout’s crime.
On the other hand, many Americans nowadays think differently about the DOJ than they did in 2011. Perhaps Bout had a point.
Whatever the merits of Bout’s claims about conspiracy and geopolitics, there is another aspect to this story.
The Russian arms dealer gave his first U.S. interview to ESPN because Griner rates as one of the WNBA’s biggest stars. Thus, the conversation focused on her.
Meanwhile, Quinn did not mention another name — one far less famous — connected to the Bout-Griner story. Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan remains in a Russian prison on phony “espionage” charges.
When he learned of Griner’s release, Whelan expressed no resentment toward the WNBA star. He did, however, express frustration with the situation.
“I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up,” Whelan told CNN shortly after the Bout-Griner exchange.
Grief over the Biden administration’s failure to secure both Griner and Whelan stems at least in part from the fact that U.S. officials had raised that very hope even before a Russian court convicted the basketball star.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on July 27, 2022, that the U.S. government intended to free both U.S. citizens.
“We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release,” Blinken said.
Imagine Americans’ surprise and dismay, therefore, when the Biden administration settled for Griner alone in exchange for the Merchant of Death.
“Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up,” President Joe Biden said on Dec. 8, 2022.
109 days ago Biden said “We have not forgotten about Paul Whelan and will do whatever it takes to bring him home”. This was after he swapped Viktor Bout the ‘Merchant of Death’ for Brittney Griner
Paul Whelan has been detained in Russia for 4 years. Bring him home!! pic.twitter.com/vRisqZ2aUW
— Eddie (@ICU1010) March 27, 2023
Those who have observed Biden’s behavior since then may judge how hard the president has worked to free Whelan.
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