Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness.
RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan in a television appearance Thursday said she was “very amused but not surprised” that the Biden administration swapped Griner, rather than Whelan, for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, as Whelan has “three problems.”
“His first problem is that he is white. His second problem is he is a man. His third problem: He is a heterosexual. This is not something that can be forgiven today,” Simonyan said. […]
Bout, a former Soviet military translator known as the “Merchant of Death,” was convicted in 2011 of selling weapons to a Colombian terrorist cell that planned to kill American soldiers. Simonyan, whom the State Department calls “Vladimir Putin’s loyal propagandist,” said Bout’s release is “the first good news” for Russia.
“The second good news is that [the United States] spits on its heroes to the extent that it considers it significantly more important to free a rightfully charged, well-known athlete,” the Russian propaganda chief said, adding that “this says a lot about the state of this society, of these intelligence agencies, and everything related to geopolitical confrontation.”
Griner since her arrest has become a cause célèbre, which likely informed the Biden administration’s decision to prioritize her release over other Americans imprisoned abroad. President Joe Biden has met with Griner’s wife Cherelle several times, inviting her to the Oval Office on Thursday to personally share the news of Griner’s release.
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