Terms of the deal:

I was thinking of doing a trade joke, like “Russia should have thrown in some draft picks and a detainee to be named later,” but I dunno. The situation is really fucked up. She was being held over there on some absolute nonsense charges, and so the Kremlin bullshitted their way into leverage here. Trading an arms dealer for a basketball player has resulted in quite a lot of negative reaction in the U.S., especially because there’s a marine named Paul Whelan still locked up over there.

For what it’s worth, the family said this:

This is the perfect example of how more than one thing can be true. They absolutely should not have left Griner in jail, and Whelan should be out by now, but Bout’s crimes are WAY worse and he should never have been released. Such is the price of negotiation, the sad reality when you’re dealing with a totalitarian state that pulls horseshit like this on a regular basis. Imagine if the United States just rounded up all of the Russian hockey players over here on some bullshit and put them in jail for 10 years, then began fraudulent “negotiations” with Russia. It’s a dog and pony show to the worst degree.

That gives me an idea actually. Maybe we can propose a second trade – Putin-lover Alex Ovechkin for Whelan, straight up. Who says no?


https://twitter.com/kylepaganCB/status/1600866940796354560?s=20&t=0kkaIaim1N0FLWt-WL6_2w