Brittney Griner Negotiator Says Putin Overruled Double Swap at Last Minute

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Brittney Griner negotiator Bill Richardson has expressed his sadness that Paul Whelan didn't come home together with the basketball star, adding that he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin overruled his advisers at the end of negotiations, dismissing a "two-for-two" exchange of prisoners.

"I was sad that Paul Whelan was not part of it. I've been for four years trying to find formulas to get Paul back, but it always seems that, at the very end, there's a roadblock," Richardson, a former New Mexico governor and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told CBC on Friday.

"I thought there would a be a 'two-for-two' exchange, Paul Whelan and Brittney for [Viktor] Bout, the Russian arms dealer, and somebody else, but at the last minute, I think President Putin decided, 'No, it's going to be 'one for one' or nothing.'"

Brittney Griner prisoner swap
People walk past a mural created by artist Isaac Campbell in Georgetown that features US women's basketball star Brittney Griner and other Americans detained abroad as part of the Bring Our Families Home Campaign in... OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

Richardson, who admitted being "at the edge of negotiations," said President Biden made the right decision getting Griner back to the U.S., but added that efforts are continuing to get Whelan and other Americans imprisoned in Russia and other parts of the world back home.

Richardson told CBC that he traveled to Russia to negotiate the prisoner exchange with Russian officials he had met during his official government roles, but said that "eventually in Russia every decision is made by Putin."

The negotiator said that decisions over prisoner swaps "change daily," and he believes "the relationship between Russia and the U.S. is so bad" that it "affected the final negotiations, preventing Paul from being part of the deal that brought Brittney home."

Richardson said there is hope for Whelan being freed soon as Russia appears open to negotiations, but he thinks Putin didn't want to give Biden "the victory" of a "two-for-two" swap.

"I think Putin at the end overruled his advisers, saying 'No, it's just going to be one on one,' because it looked for a while—and I was involved and I heard from Russians—that it would be 'two-for-two', and that's what we thought was going to happen, but it didn't," he said.

"These things change rapidly and you got to adjust, but I think that, Whelan, we can get him out."

The Canadian-born former U.S. marine was arrested in December 2018 and accused of spying. In June 2020, he received a 16-year sentence from a Russian court.

"He's an American military marine. He's not as glamorous as Brittney Griner, but he doesn't deserve to be there for four years," said Richardson.

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About the writer

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more