Let’s pray no Nuke warheads got sold in the 1990’s.
This triggers my “Don’t negotiate with Terrorist”. Putin is hard to distinguish from a terrorist. But we hardly wear a white hat ourselves anymore so I fight down my old reflexes.
I do think we should have a general No Travel Order to Russia in place now if we don’t already.
Russia has plenty of nukes. Not sure what your point is here.
There’s rumors of Nukes sold to 3rd world countries. No way to prove or disprove it without access to US intelligence files
Modnote: This feels like you’re moving off-topic now. Drop it or start a new thread for it.
Understood. Didn’t mean to wander off topic.
I understand the Prisoner swap is the topic.
I’m pleased for her and her family. I am in no position to say if this was a good idea or the best way to do it. This was always a political thing.
I don’t like how this went down, and it’s because of fame privilege. The only reason the US agreed to give up Bout for Griner is because of how famous Griner was. If Griner were some nobody who never played in the WNBA and nobody had heard of, there’s no way America gives up Bout for him. This sort of trade reinforces the value of celebrity status.
Had she been a nobody, she would not have gotten such a severe sentence. Someone said, perhaps in another thread/topic here, that the usual sentence for this amount of cannabis is only a few months in prison, which is what she served quite early on, before receiving the fourteen-year sentence.
Good to hear that she is coming home. It will be very interesting to hear her side of the story once she is back in the USA.
I am absolutely disgusted with those who have so easily assumed she is “guilty” based on the findings of a Putinist court and her statements made under duress.
Eh, it’s not like our legal system doesn’t coerce people into false confessions all the time. And then it’s not even for international political reasons, it’s just out of pettiness.
But, whether or not she brought a bit of vape oil into the country or not, it shouldn’t have resulted in 14 years prison.
Sorry, too late to edit, somehow in my 2 AM muddled brain I wrote Griner as a him, not her.
Explain the Konstantin Yaroshenko - Trevor Reed exchange then.
Whelan absolutely deserves to be let out. However I’m not sure a guy that was court-martialed, demoted and drummed out with a bad conduct discharge should be given the unalloyed sheen associated with the term ‘Marine veteran’. Per wiki: The specific charges against him included "attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another’s social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment.
Sadly, not true. Russia will fuck with anyone - witness Marc Fogel. Now Fogel absolutely is guilty, as he has admitted - he definitely tried to smuggle in marijuana for personal use and far more than Griner. However since the amount Griner was nailed for was teensy-tiny (two partially empty vape pens), his “far more” amounted to only a half-ounce in total. For which he got 14 years.
Griner was a convenient target, but Russia is often on the look out for a manipulable target that could be useful for leverage (see also Trevor Reed above). Except when they aren’t, as with the very lucky Audrey Lorber
Well, she did get caught with hash vape cartridges in her luggage. Going into a country where they are illegal. And it doesn’t matter if she had gone in and out with them in her luggage previously, just because you were not caught before doesn’t make them any less illegal.
I will point out it is sort of a leopards ate my face sort of thing, just like those women who got prosletyzing in Afghanistan where it is illegal complaining when they got the death penalty. If I am traveling where some substance or behavior is illegal, I damned well don’t take/do whatever because not my country, not my laws, don’t want the punishment.
Holy crap! Well, that puts a different spin on things for me.
What would have happened to a Russian citizen who was caught similarly to Brittney Griner? Would they also receive fourteen years in a penal colony?
It’s honestly one of the reasons I’m more inclined to suspect Whelan is innocent of the espionage charges laid on him. As the wiki notes former CIA agents have said that kind of military record is not one the CIA typically regards as a good recruitment résumé.
Here’s all you need to know about why people are reacting the way they are:
Oh, hell no - 5,000 ruble fine/15 day detention would be standard. Even poor Marc Fogel should have been looking at no more than 3 years (maybe 5 if the up to two years forced labor was in addition to jail time, wikipedia is unclear) if he were Russian, not 14. But the Russian powers-that-be don’t really give a shit about rules.