The world is facing a significant challenge in managing waste, and some countries have made notable progress in implementing effective waste sorting and recycling systems.

According to a report by the British environmental consultancy Eunomia, Switzerland ranked 9th in the global recycling rate ranking in 2017, with a successful practice of introducing a tax on garbage bags to subsidize waste disposal costs.

However, this practice has also led to some Swiss citizens evading the high charges by leaving their waste in neighboring France, resulting in the French government cracking down on "smuggling" garbage.

In contrast, South Korea has implemented a garbage charging system since 1995, which has greatly reduced the overall waste disposal volume by 40% and increased the recycling rate to over 60%.

The Korean government's approach has been to implement the waste reduction plan in a step-by-step manner, starting with bag charging and gradually expanding to restrict the use of disposable products and promote recycling of kitchen waste.

This multi-pronged approach has been effective in reducing waste and promoting recycling, and other countries can learn from Korea's experience.

Another country that has made significant progress in waste management is Finland, where only 1% of waste ends up in landfills, and the vast majority is recycled.

Finland's success can be attributed to the interaction of central and local authorities, as well as the awareness of citizens, and Ukraine is planning to adopt a similar approach.

In Asia, Taiwan has also made notable progress in waste management, with a waste levy policy introduced in 2000, which has led to a significant reduction in waste disposal and an increase in recycling rates.

Singapore has also implemented a comprehensive waste management system, with a small population but professional and centralized waste recycling work.

The city-state has a recycling rate of 51.7%, with a model that Hong Kong can learn from.

In terms of regional practices, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been suggested as a potential region for leveraging advantages in waste management.

Hong Kong's waste management policy has been criticized for being inefficient, and the city can learn from the experience of other regions, such as Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore.

The Hong Kong government has introduced a waste levy policy, which has been postponed to August 2023, but the city still falls short of its target of reducing waste disposal by 40%.

The government has launched a pilot scheme for collecting food waste in public housing estates and has installed smart recycling bins in all public housing estates.

However, the effectiveness of these measures has been questioned, and there are reports that some recyclables are eventually sent to landfills.

To address these challenges, the government should establish a review mechanism to regularly announce the effectiveness of waste reduction and recycling.

In conclusion, countries such as Switzerland, South Korea, Finland, Taiwan, and Singapore have implemented successful waste sorting and recycling systems, with a range of practices and experiences that can be learned from.

These countries have demonstrated that a combination of government policies, public awareness, and education can lead to significant reductions in waste disposal and increases in recycling rates.

As the world continues to face the challenge of managing waste, it is essential to learn from these successful practices and implement effective waste sorting and recycling systems.

The world is facing a significant challenge in managing waste, and some countries have made notable progress in implementing effective waste sorting and recycling systems.

According to a report by the British environmental consultancy Eunomia, Switzerland ranked 9th in the global recycling rate ranking in 2017, with a successful practice of introducing a tax on garbage bags to subsidize waste disposal costs.

Title:

Content: 【 Printing 】
Swiss garbage smugglers evade high charges in France
Related LINKS http: / / www.CRNT.com 2024-04-23 10: 11: 12
Beijing, April 23 (Xinhua) -- According to a report by the British environmental consultancy Eunomia, the global recycling rate ranking in 2017, Hong Kong ranked 24th, and Switzerland ranked 9th.
Since 2012, the Swiss government has introduced a tax on garbage bags to subsidize waste disposal costs, but the high fees have led some Swiss to leave their waste in neighboring France.
To this end, the French government cracked down on "smuggling" garbage, blocking nearly 10 tons of garbage from Switzerland, and fined 150 euros each.
South Korea has implemented garbage charging since 1995, and the overall waste disposal volume has been greatly reduced by 40%, and the recycling rate has reached more than 60%.
Compared to “one size fits all ” measures, the Korean government implemented the waste reduction plan in a step-by-step manner.
Waste charging is carried out in the form of bag charging, and then gradually expanded to restrict the use of disposable products, recycling of kitchen waste, etc., to deal with waste in a multi-pronged manner.
The environmental equation “3R ” has a priority: reduce waste, reuse, and recycle. Lisa Ramsden, a member of Greenpeace America, pointed out that large food and daily necessities companies have been promoting recycling for many years, but the results have not been good, so the“ naked buy ” consumption model of Reuse and Refill, that is, self-purchased containers. Buy the required items to really reduce waste at the source.
【 Printing 】
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However, this practice has also led to some Swiss citizens evading the high charges by leaving their waste in neighboring France, resulting in the French government cracking down on "smuggling" garbage.

In contrast, South Korea has implemented a garbage charging system since 1995, which has greatly reduced the overall waste disposal volume by 40% and increased the recycling rate to over 60%.

The Korean government's approach has been to implement the waste reduction plan in a step-by-step manner, starting with bag charging and gradually expanding to restrict the use of disposable products and promote recycling of kitchen waste.

This multi-pronged approach has been effective in reducing waste and promoting recycling, and other countries can learn from Korea's experience.

Another country that has made significant progress in waste management is Finland, where only 1% of waste ends up in landfills, and the vast majority is recycled.

Title:

Content: Ukraine will deepen cooperation with Finland in the direction of household waste management.
According to the press service of the Ministry of Regional Development, this was announced by the Minister of Communities and Territories Alexey Chernyshov during a meeting with the Ambassador of the Republic of Finland to Ukraine Päivi Laine.
It is noted that in Finland, only 1% of waste ends up in landfills, the vast majority is recycled.
This is the result of the interaction of the central and local authorities, as well as the awareness of citizens
Ukraine is also planning to adopt this experience.
“Finland is a country that demonstrates high standards of environmental waste management.
Almost all the citizens of this country sort the garbage.
As a result, 99% of household waste is recycled.
This experience will be useful for Ukraine.
So, a similar process is already underway in hromadas - in 1725 settlements of our state, a separate collection of household waste has been introduced.
But it is necessary to scale this direction and introduce useful practices of international partners in the country, "Chernyshov said.
Read alsoIn the Odessa region on the Danube, the dam is destroyed - under it meter voids In the press service reminded that thanks to the implementation of separate collection of garbage in 2020, about 6.3% of household waste was recycled and disposed of in Ukraine.
In turn, Laine noted that Finland is ready to share experience and help Ukrainian communities to implement waste processing projects.
“We also have companies that recycle waste into energy.
In such a comprehensive way, we improve the ecology of our country, ” she added.
Waste recycling in Ukraine
As UNIAN reported, in July 2020, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted in the first reading the draft law No. 2207-1-d “On waste management ”.
The document establishes the procedure for the collection, removal and treatment of waste, ensures the introduction of their separate collection and recycling, provides for the requirements for the quality of the provision of waste management services and the charging of fees for such a service.

Finland's success can be attributed to the interaction of central and local authorities, as well as the awareness of citizens, and Ukraine is planning to adopt a similar approach.

In Asia, Taiwan has also made notable progress in waste management, with a waste levy policy introduced in 2000, which has led to a significant reduction in waste disposal and an increase in recycling rates.

Title:

Content: Waste management in Hong Kong starts early and matures late. How can we catch up with Taiwan, Shanghai, Korea and the tail lights of the starry cars?
Author: 01 Weekly Report
Published: Updated:
Hong Kong's environmental protection policy has not made great progress. For many years, it seems that it has remained at the stage of "blue waste paper, yellow aluminum cans, coffee plastic bottles", and there is no plastic reduction policy.
Last year, the mainland stopped the import of waste paper, and Hong Kong recyclers also stopped collecting waste paper.
When the Government is faced with Members' questions on plastic reduction and countless initiatives by environmental groups, it is always in a state of "discussion" with the retail and restaurant industries, "under consideration", lest it harm the economic interests of the industry, and would rather harm the environmental benefits than see any actual action taken.
On July 1, 2019, the Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Ordinance was officially implemented.
At Haihong Bridge Station on the railway line, volunteers are promoting a little knowledge of garbage classification. (Visual China)
On the other hand, after years of vigorous promotion, waste management is well organized and highly efficient: South Korea ’ s waste management system is at the forefront of Asia, with Seoul being the most effective.
The local municipal authorities have the responsibility to collect, recycle and dispose of domestic and commercial solid waste. Waste management in Taiwan once lagged behind Hong Kong, but due to the early introduction of the waste levy policy by the Taiwan government, and then formulated a complex and effective waste management system, the situation in Singapore is gradually reversed. Shanghai launched the “Shanghai Municipal Domestic Waste Management Ordinance ” in 2019. The complicated measures have caused complaints from the public. Over time, the results can be said to be immediate after the people have familiarized themselves with the regulations.
Looking at the situation in these four Asian regions, it is not difficult to imagine why there is no systematic waste management in Hong Kong today, when we look back at Hong Kong's garbage collection practices, which rely entirely on the people's consciousness to separate and unsupervised waste.
For more details, please read the 285th issue of Hong Kong 01 (4 October 2021), “What should Hong Kong look for in Taiwan, Shanghai, Korea and Star? ”.
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Singapore has also implemented a comprehensive waste management system, with a small population but professional and centralized waste recycling work.

Title:

Content: Hong Kong ’ s slow progress in environmental governance – why not look at the Greater Bay Area and the world?
Author: Liu Mengting
Published: Updated:
In 2005, the SAR Government proposed to develop a recycling economy, that is, to reduce the environmental burden by repairing, recycling and extending the service life of materials, to find a way out for recycling recyclable materials, and to promote the development of related industries and promote economic diversification.
However, more than a decade later, Hong Kong ’ s circular economy has not made much progress.
In this regard, some scholars suggest leveraging the advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
At the same time, Hong Kong ’ s waste management policy is not yet climate, and we must match the experience of “top students ” such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore.
Circular Economy Enemies the Greater Bay Area
Professor Patrick Poon, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has been developing a patented technology for converting waste glass into environmentally friendly bricks since the 1990s, with a view to improving the recycling efficiency of waste glass.
Green brick is a kind of concrete brick, can effectively use construction waste and waste glass, the third generation of green brick has been put into the market as paving brick.
For more than 20 years, the technology has been optimized by scholars to the fifth generation, but it is still “technology without market ”.
In an interview with "Hong Kong 01" recently, Poon mentioned the two main reasons why the development of the local green brick industry is hindered, which is also the dilemma faced by Hong Kong's circular economy.
Pan Chih-sheng says that the research on green bricks has been successful, but the price is not competitive. (photo by O'Cara)
One of the main reasons is that local manufacturing has caused the high enterprise products to lose market advantage. Poon analysis, because the whole production process of environmentally friendly bricks produced in Hong Kong is completed in Hong Kong, and the land price and labor in Hong Kong are very high, and the price has also risen with the water. It is necessary to open up the market to achieve maximum trade liberalization, so the possibility of contractors choosing Hong Kong materials for profit considerations is very low.
On the other hand, the Hong Kong government has not introduced relevant policies to require the actual use of environmentally friendly materials, in the absence of just the premise, the market share of environmentally friendly bricks is unstable, and the current use of the third generation of environmentally friendly bricks is about 20% more expensive than natural sand bricks, so the project side may not consider the use of environmentally friendly bricks.
Another major obstacle is that the government did not help. Pan Zhisheng pointed out that environmental protection bricks are made of recycled materials, although the quality and performance of the bricks are not lost to natural sand and stone, but the quality difference is greater.
However, according to the existing government regulations, the two are regarded as the same, that is, the quality of environmentally friendly materials is too high, but it may still be regarded as unqualified due to the degree of quality difference. This single regulation is a constraint for the application of environmentally friendly bricks. If the outlook does not improve, it will be more difficult to attract investors.
Under such a vicious cycle, the government has no intention to invest or give support, and the environmental protection brick industry chain has become a dead end.
The recycling rate of local waste in Hong Kong is low, and exports are facing many restrictions.
In an interview with Hong Kong 01, Wong Woon-chung, director of the Johan Centre for Applied Forestry Research in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), Hong Kong Baptist University, pointed out that the land resources in Hong Kong are tight, such as the opening of a recycling plant for recycled materials will double the cost.
Mr Wong stressed that the circular economy requires complementary advantages from different regions. There is no way out if the development vision is limited to Hong Kong. (photo by Mr Cheng Tze-feng)
Waste management in Hong Kong is inefficient and should be seen around the world
South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan implemented waste levies in 1995, 1996 and 2000 respectively. Since then, they have gradually developed comprehensive and mature environmental policies with local characteristics.
Hong Kong's waste management system has been fragmented for many years, and it is time to look at the world and learn from advanced experience and thinking.
Hong Kong ’ s waste management policy has not been good for many years, and the climate should be on par with other regions. (Photo by Tsai Cheng-pong)
Korea has introduced waste utilization measures in a multi-pronged manner to achieve long-term management, so the Korean waste management system is at the forefront of Asia.
For example, the city of Seoul, which has achieved the most remarkable results, introduced a series of supporting measures in a few years to change the entire waste treatment model, public perception of waste and living habits after the implementation of the garbage levy system in 1995.
In contrast, the Hong Kong Government is always "discussing" with the industry and "considering" the initiatives of environmental protection groups.
Taiwan is also a leader in waste management in Asia.
The Taiwan government sent a special cleaning team to collect household waste from residents using two types of recycling trucks – yellow garbage trucks are used to collect general waste from residents using official garbage bags, and white garbage trucks are used to collect raw and cooked food waste, plastic and other recyclable resources.
As early as 1997, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency launched the "Resource Recovery 4-in-1 Program", which fully mobilized the role of the government, manufacturers, consumers and licensed recycling enterprises in waste management, not only to skillfully distribute the financial costs, but also to reflect the principle of impartiality.
Singapore has a small population, similar to Hong Kong, but the waste recycling work is more professional and centralized.
In Singapore, three waste management enterprises are licensed by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to provide waste collection and recycling services to residents in different parts of the country. The waste is meticulously classified into paper, plastic, glass and metal, and the garden waste is collected separately.
In the recycling process, incineration plants reduce the volume of waste by 90%, and then use 3% of non-incineration and non-recyclable waste to landfill to reduce the environmental burden.
According to statistics, Singapore ’ s solid waste recycling rate reached 51.7% in 2020, a model that Hong Kong can learn from.
As for the administrative efficiency of the Mainland, it is also worth reflecting on the Hong Kong government. In July 2019, Shanghai implemented what has been described as the “world ’ s most stringent ” waste separation measure.
First of all, its domestic waste is strictly divided into four categories, namely recyclables, hazardous waste, wet waste and dry waste; secondly, if individuals or units do not dispose of garbage in accordance with the classification, they will be punished with severe high fines.
Under the mandatory implementation of the government, Shanghai residents have achieved good environmental protection results after experiencing "pain".
The Garbage Levy Ordinance has already been introduced, but the Government must not be complacent about it, but must think about how to tie in with the Ordinance in the next step, and adopt a systematic and comprehensive thinking to achieve long-term waste management.
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The city-state has a recycling rate of 51.7%, with a model that Hong Kong can learn from.

In terms of regional practices, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been suggested as a potential region for leveraging advantages in waste management.

Hong Kong's waste management policy has been criticized for being inefficient, and the city can learn from the experience of other regions, such as Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore.

The Hong Kong government has introduced a waste levy policy, which has been postponed to August 2023, but the city still falls short of its target of reducing waste disposal by 40%.

Title:

Content: Sihui policy ｜ Waste reduction target not reached in ten years garbage levy or turnaround, but need a large amount of supporting
Author: 01 Forum
Published: Updated:
Hong Kong was originally scheduled to implement the garbage levy from 1 April this year. The public had to use designated garbage bags to collect garbage. The government explained the garbage levy for days, but there are still many doubts and opinions about the implementation details, and even some people think that the garbage levy does not help to reduce waste.
Last week, the Secretary for the Environment and Ecology, Mr Daniel Tse, announced that the statutory effective date of the scheme would be extended to 1 August. Starting from 1 April, government departments and buildings will be tested first to show the actual operation to the public and help the public understand the details of waste charging through on-site publicity and education.
For the public to support the levy, the Government needs to make the public fully aware and actively participate. What is the current state of waste disposal in Hong Kong?
Why do we need to introduce a waste levy?
Written by: Yang Jingwen
Hong Kong still falls short of its target of 10 years ago
Waste is the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Hong Kong. The government has been encouraging the community to work together to reduce waste and carbon emissions in response to climate change. However, Hong Kong still has not met the official waste reduction target of the Hong Kong Resource Cycle Blueprint 2013-2022, which was proposed in 2013 – that is, to reduce the per capita disposal of solid waste by 40% by 2022, that is 0.8 kg or less.
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) released the “Hong Kong Solid Waste Monitoring Report – Statistics 2022 ” last month, with a total disposal volume of 4.06 million tons of municipal solid waste, with a per capita disposal volume of 1.51 kg per day. The recovery rate of municipal solid waste is only 32%, and most of the waste is still dumped in landfills.
Due to changes in social conditions, the Government launched the “Hong Kong Resource Cycle Blueprint 2035 ” in 2021, setting an interim waste reduction target, hoping to gradually reduce the per capita disposal of municipal solid waste to about 0.85 kg, adopting the“ Universal Waste Reduction ” approach.
The resource cycle.
"Zero Waste Landfill".
Landfills will soon be full, facilities will be decommissioned
The three existing landfills in Hong Kong are expected to be saturated in the next few years. Even if the South East New Territories landfill is expanded, it is expected that the waste disposal needs of Hong Kong will only be met by the 2030s. scarce land resources.
In 2022, the EPD announced that it would develop waste-to-energy facilities to gradually replace landfills.
The Integrated Waste Management Facility (I.PARK), currently under construction near Shek Kwu Chau, is expected to be operational by 2025. It will be capable of handling up to 3,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day, which is about 27% of the current waste, and will be able to output 480 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually after full operation, equivalent to about 1% of the electricity consumption of Hong Kong.
In addition, incineration can significantly reduce the volume of waste and reduce the burden on landfills.
Waste incineration must comply with waste levies and recycling measures
Since the Government intends to incinerate waste, why does it still have to implement waste levies and recycling measures?
Up to 30% of municipal solid waste in Hong Kong is food waste, with more than 3,300 tonnes being disposed of daily in 2022, but the recovery rate of food waste is less than 6%.
If waste is treated by incineration in Hong Kong, the food waste is filled with water, which will consume a lot of extra energy during incineration. Therefore, waste separation and recycling can assist in incineration.
The Government launched the Pilot Scheme for the Collection of Food Waste in Public Housing Estates in 2022, and gradually installed smart recycling bins in all public housing estates in Hong Kong during this year. The Pilot Scheme for Smart Food Waste Recycling bins in Private Housing Estates was launched to provide free smart food waste recycling bins to private housing estates with a total household size of not less than 1,000 households and eligible for the specified application.
What ’ s more, turning waste into an energy facility is only the current way to dispose of waste, but it doesn ’ t really reduce waste.
In order to achieve sustainable development in Hong Kong, one of the important actions is to convert suitable waste into resources or energy as far as possible, and to develop a circular economy in line with global trends to create green business opportunities.
Waste charging is the cornerstone of the promotion of waste reduction and recycling, and many regions will increase recycling to reduce the amount of waste. For example, in Korea, urban solid waste charging has been implemented since 1995.
Between 1994 and 2004, waste disposal in Korea decreased by 24% from 58,118 tonnes per day to 50,007 tonnes, and the recovery rate increased from 29% to over 60%.
The implementation of the Hong Kong Garbage Levy is imminent. Previously, a number of "Green in the District" recycling stations were closed during the Christmas holidays, and a large number of recyclables were piled up, which shows that the demand for recycling has increased greatly.
However, at present, there are only 45 fixed recycling centres in the Green Area, with an average of about 170,000 people sharing a recycling point. Some of them are far from residential areas or are only serving during the day, which is not enough to meet the huge recycling demand.
The Government should, as soon as possible, expand the number and coverage of "Green in the District" collection points, and strengthen the collection service at night and on holidays to facilitate public use.
A three-pronged approach to finding best practices from practice to a zero-waste future
To achieve the interim goal of reducing the amount of municipal solid waste per capita by 40% to 45% and increasing the recycling rate to about 55%, Hong Kong must promote waste reduction and clean recycling through waste levies and the upgrading of recycling facilities, in addition to developing waste-to-energy facilities to deal with municipal solid waste.
If properly organized, the three can actually complement each other. Hong Kong can implement a waste treatment system with recycling and waste reduction as its core, and use waste conversion as an energy facility to treat waste that cannot be recycled.
A zero-waste future is not a one-off process, but rather a step-by-step process and constant revision in order to find the most appropriate local approach.
In order to make the public and the industry more aware of the levy scheme, the Government has postponed the scheme until August. Although there are still many questions about the waste levy, some people have criticized the guidelines for not being clear, and some people are worried about the increase of waste in the natural environment.
The Hong Kong Government should seize the opportunity to communicate directly with all sectors of the community to continuously publicize and implement public education to the public and the industrial and commercial sectors, especially the households of the three no buildings and ethnic minorities who currently lack support, so that the public can understand the reasons for the waste levy, the implementation details and the supporting measures; and on the other hand, understand the difficulties that front-line personnel in the cleaning and recycling industry may face.
In addition, the Government should seize the time to build supporting facilities as soon as possible to facilitate waste collection, sorting, recycling and conversion, so that the public can establish a recycling culture, and at the same time promote the sustainable development of the recycling industry and promote a circular economy.
In addition, although Hong Kong has implemented tricolor recycling measures for many years, the effectiveness of the measures has been questioned, and there are reports that some recyclables are eventually sent to landfills, which has dampened the public's willingness to recycle.
To reassure the public, the waste levy should establish a review mechanism to regularly announce the effectiveness of waste reduction and recycling, so that all sectors of the community can understand the benefits of implementing a waste treatment system, and help the government to improve policies and related measures to move towards a zero-waste future.
The author, Yang Jingwen, is the operations manager of the Sihui Policy Institute.
The article is only the opinion of the author and does not represent the position of Hong Kong 01.
Please email us at 01view @ hk01.com.
Please attach the author ’ s real name and contact details.
If not applicable, no notice will be given.

The government has launched a pilot scheme for collecting food waste in public housing estates and has installed smart recycling bins in all public housing estates.

However, the effectiveness of these measures has been questioned, and there are reports that some recyclables are eventually sent to landfills.

To address these challenges, the government should establish a review mechanism to regularly announce the effectiveness of waste reduction and recycling.

In conclusion, countries such as Switzerland, South Korea, Finland, Taiwan, and Singapore have implemented successful waste sorting and recycling systems, with a range of practices and experiences that can be learned from.

These countries have demonstrated that a combination of government policies, public awareness, and education can lead to significant reductions in waste disposal and increases in recycling rates.

As the world continues to face the challenge of managing waste, it is essential to learn from these successful practices and implement effective waste sorting and recycling systems.


Brittney Griner, a professional American basketball player, was detained in Russia in 2022 for marijuana possession, sparking a high-profile case with significant political implications.

She was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in February 2022 and later sentenced to nine years in prison, with her detention being deemed wrongful by the US government.

Griner's experiences in the Russian penitentiary system were marked by harsh conditions, including torture, beatings, and slave labor, as reported by various sources.

The American government made efforts to free her, with President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaging in diplomatic negotiations with Russian officials.

A prisoner swap was ultimately arranged, exchanging Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence in the US.

Griner's release was met with jubilation, but also raised questions about the deal's implications for US-Russia relations and the potential for future hostage-taking.

After her release, Griner returned to the US and has been adjusting to life back home, with her first public appearance being a WNBA preseason game.

Griner's case highlighted the challenges faced by American citizens detained abroad and the complexities of diplomatic negotiations in high-stakes cases.

Brittney Griner, a professional American basketball player, was detained in Russia in 2022 for marijuana possession, sparking a high-profile case with significant political implications.

Title:

Content: All news

Russia in talks with US about potential prisoner exchanges, says diplomat

"We proceed from the fact that the negotiations should take the interests of both sides into account," Ivan Nechayev stressed
Russian Foreign Ministry
© Valery Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/. Competent authorities in Russia and the United States are in talks to discuss potential prisoner swaps, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Deputy Spokesman Ivan Nechayev said at a briefing on Thursday.

"We have repeatedly commented on this. On August 5, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that Russia is ready to discuss the issue, but only within the channel negotiated by Russian President [Vladimir Putin] and US President [Joe Biden]. Let me remind you that corresponding competent authorities have been instructed to negotiate the issue. Competent agencies are in talks," the Russian diplomat said.

He also recalled Moscow’s plea to Washington "not to speculate on the sensitive issue affecting specific individuals."

"We would recommend abandoning futile attempts to put pressure on us and we are calling on them to concentrate on practical work along the available channels. There is no other way," Nechayev concluded.

"We proceed from the fact that the negotiations should take the interests of both sides into account," the diplomat emphasized.

Earlier, Washington offered Moscow to exchange Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a prison term in the US for arms trafficking, for basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced to jail for drugs trafficking, and Paul Whelan, convicted in Russia of spying. The exchange of prisoners was one of the topics discussed in a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in late July. American media reported later, citing unidentified sources, that Russia had proposed to include another Russian prisoner jailed in the West in the prisoner swap.

She was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in February 2022 and later sentenced to nine years in prison, with her detention being deemed wrongful by the US government.

Title:

Content: Brittney Griner freed from Russian prison in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout

The US and Russia have exchanged jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” officials said.

The swap was confirmed by US officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations ahead of an expected White House announcement, the Associated Press reports.

Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose months-long imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.

She was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after vape canisters containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage - but she maintained it was an honest mistake.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris confirmed on Thursday morning they had already spoken by phone with Griner and she is said to have been in good spirits.

In a celebratory tweet, Mr Biden said Griner, a native of Houston, Texas, is on a plane home and is safe.

The Russian foreign ministry said it traded Griner for Russian citizen Viktor Bout, a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the US Justice Department once described as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers.

Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that US officials said were to be used against Americans.

The deal, the second such exchange in eight months with Russia, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad.

The dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, however, did not include the release of Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges.

Mr Whelan's family and the US government say the accusations against him are baseless. He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.

Griner pleaded guilty in July, though still faced trial because admitting guilt in Russia’s judicial system does not automatically end a case. She acknowledged in court she possessed the canisters, but said she had no criminal intent and said their presence in her luggage was due to hasty packing.

Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, infused racial and gender dynamics into the picture and made each development a matter of global importance.

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Griner's experiences in the Russian penitentiary system were marked by harsh conditions, including torture, beatings, and slave labor, as reported by various sources.

Title:

Content: Global RiskNews Briefs

Russia frees US basketball star in swap with arms dealer Bout

The US and Russia have exchanged US basketball star Brittney Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout in a prison swap. The arms dealer had been held in an American prison for 12 years. Brittney Griner is on a plane back to the United States.

Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and was sent to a penal colony last month. A prisoner exchange was proposed by the US in July. As part of the prisoner exchange, US President Joe Biden signed the order to release Bout, commuting his 25 year jail term.

Read More: Russia frees US basketball star in swap with arms dealer Bout

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The American government made efforts to free her, with President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken engaging in diplomatic negotiations with Russian officials.

Title:

Content: The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.

American basketball star Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia since February. She has been facing drug possession charges for carrying vape cartridges in her luggage that contained cannabis oil. The charges carry a potential sentence of up to 10 years in jail.

Griner pleaded guilty to the drug charges in Russian court Thursday, while stressing that she had packed in a hurry and not intended to break Russian law. Regardless of Thursday’s plea, observers have not expected Griner to receive justice in the Russian legal system.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, has accurately called her a “political pawn” caught up in the fraught relationship between the U.S. and Russia amid the latter’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. There should be little doubt that Griner’s detention is bigger than vape cartridges.

With frustrations increasingly being voiced by Griner’s family that President Joe Biden and his administration haven’t been doing enough to help her, Griner sent a letter to Biden on Monday asking for assistance for herself and other American detainees. For example, Paul Whelan, who also previously served in the Marines, was accused of being a spy and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.

“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Griner wrote in her July 4 letter to Biden.

Marine veteran Trevor Reed knows a thing or two about what Griner and Whelan are going through. Reed was detained in Russia for three years before being released in April as part of a prisoner exchange.

“There is no justice in Russia,” Reed told CNN in June. “Brittney and Paul will not receive justice in Russia. They’re not going to receive a fair trial, they will not receive a fair investigation. They will be there as hostages until the United States gets them out.”

He added that Griner was likely to be treated worse in Russia because of her race and sexual orientation, saying that the country “systematically discriminates” against Black and LGBTQ+ people.

There is only so much the Biden administration can do with Griner in the custody of an authoritarian government known for making examples out of political prisoners, and likely looking for a bargaining chip as it continues its barbaric invasion of Ukraine. Though as demonstrated by Reed’s release, there are options. It must not take three years.

At the very least, for now, Biden and his team can control how they communicate and reassure Griner’s family. And on that front, it seems the administration had been coming up short.

Griner’s family and friends had criticized the Biden administration’s handling of her case, and called for the president to meet with them. On Wednesday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris finally had a phone call with Cherelle Griner.

“The president called Cherelle to reassure her that he is working to secure Brittney’s release as soon as possible, as well as the release of Paul Whelan and other U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage in Russia and around the world,” the White House said in a statement after the call. “He also read her a draft of the letter the president is sending to Brittney today.”

That statement also noted that top administration officials have already had calls with Cherelle Griner in recent weeks, and said Biden has directed his national security team to stay in “regular contact” with the Griner family. A U.S. diplomat said they delivered Biden’s letter to Griner at Thursday’s proceedings.

Biden’s call with Griner’s wife was an initial step, and the ultimate goal must be a quick release for Griner and other political prisoners. There is much work left for the administration to do, including a continual commitment to assure Griner’s family that the U.S. is exploring all possible options to secure her release. And hopefully the attention will elevate the pressure to help return other Americans like Whelan as well.

“Write them, call them, annoy them, don’t leave them alone,” Reed said in June about pressuring federal representatives to act. “Tell them you want Brittney home and you want the rest of the Americans who are being wrongfully detained home, and you want it done now.”

Add us to the list of people looking to raise the pressure on the Biden administration to bring home wrongfully detained Americans like Griner, who are essentially hostages, and to bring them home quickly.

The BDN Editorial Board

The Bangor Daily News editorial board members are Publisher Richard J. Warren, Editorial Page Editor Susan Young, Assistant Editorial Page Editor Matt Junker and BDN President Todd Benoit. Young has worked...

A prisoner swap was ultimately arranged, exchanging Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year sentence in the US.

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Where does wrongful detention of Brittney Griner go from here?

She will inevitably be labeled a hostage

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Brittney Griner

It seems like years rather than weeks ago that American political prisoner, Trevor Reed, was released from Russia in a prisoner swap. It also seems like years since an American citizen, basketball superstar Brittney Griner, was taken into custody in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for allegedly having hashish oil in her possession.

We now know what many of us believed all along – that Brittney Griner was, in the far too late proclamation by the U.S. government, “wrongfully detained.” In diplomacy-speak, wrongfully detained is synonymous with politically detained, which is super close to what will soon enough inevitably happen – calling Brittney Griner a hostage.

Since the beginning of Griner’s detention, I have done dozens of print, radio, TV, and related interviews, and I have a pretty clear view of how and why we got here.

As I wrote around six weeks ago, if we read between the lines of what’s being said in traditional and social media, we can extract three key reasons why the Griner situation isn’t getting the attention that it should be and would be if it was a different athlete.

The first reason is that Brittney Griner is not a terribly high-profile athlete.

This is patently untrue. As I have been commenting from the minute we learned that she was taken into custody by the Russians, Griner was absolutely the highest-profile American athlete that Russia could have taken into custody as they were preparing for their brutal invasion of Ukraine.

The only other high-profile athletes playing in Russia or transiting through at that time were the very few American players in Russia’s top hockey league, the KHL. None are superstars in their sport, as Griner is.

The second argument for why Griner isn’t getting the attention she should be is that she is LGBTQ.

I have argued that this is a reasonably good hypothesis. It just seems that a straight athlete would be getting a lot more attention and public sympathy than Griner has, in part, yet not in full, because of her sexual orientation. That’s a remarkably harsh position to have to take in 2022, yet it’s clear that Griner doesn’t fit the mold of what many Americans see as that all-American athlete. That one’s sexual or gender orientation should drive the American public’s level of sympathy for one of their own top athletes is a shame, but here we are.

The third and most commonly cited reason for Brittany Griner getting less attention than another athlete in a similar situation is that she’s Black.

This argument holds little weight with me. Yes, it makes sense that in comparison to a high-profile white athlete, some people are simply going to care less about a Black athlete. Again, that’s a harsh analysis, yet not unaligned with many things going on in the nation today.

But I think this is a reductive argument that crumbles under the weight of the analogy that I usually use during TV and radio broadcasts about the Griner case – and that is, what if this was Kyrie Irving?

I like to use Kyrie Irving as an analogy because he is a highly controversial Black athlete. Obviously, NBA players don’t have to have second jobs in places like Russia, Turkey, and China, to make ends meet, as the WNBA women do. But just imagine that Kyrie Irving was traveling alone through Moscow airport. If Irving had been taken into custody by the Russians, I can guarantee that this would be front-page news not just in the sports section but on the front page of all significant papers practically every day. That simply hasn’t been the case with Brittney Griner.

Every day, I am asked where this goes from here. With Griner’s May 19 hearing delayed “one month” (though at the time of writing, no date has been set), I remained convinced of two things: that this goes to a worse place than we are now and that it progresses painfully slowly.

As to the first point, to maximize leverage over the United States, it’s likely that Griner will end up somewhere like a Russian labor camp before she ever steps back into the United States. While Russia does not follow the Rule of Law, it would be neither legally nor politically expedient to just hold Griner in a Moscow jail or prison indefinitely. They need to make her situation worse to turn up the urgency of the case for the American government.

But this indeed won’t happen overnight. As I’ve also been saying all along, the next hearing date will also be delayed, OR we will learn through a TASS Russian media release that Griner was tried, found guilty of all charges, and sentenced (see labor camp, above).

As to what each of us can do, my advice remains the same: Keep talking about it. Make this Brittney as viral as Britney Spears was a year ago. Just as Britney Spears’ freedom from her conservatorship was turbo-charged by the #FreeBritney hashtag, let’s #FreeBrittney now.

This is significantly less trite than it sounds. There is no indication that the American government doesn’t want you to forget about Brittney Griner. As former hostage Jason Rezaian discussed on an excellent recent Washington Post podcast, he always “calls BS” on those parties, saying we should keep detentions such as Griner’s out of the public spotlight. He advocates being as loud as we can be on this, which is why I keep doing interviews on this issue as much as possible.

Ultimately, Brittney Griner will be a political prisoner until the United States and Russia can decide, in crass basketball terms, on a fair player trade. On Friday, we learned that the two sides might actually be in discussions now for a trade involving Griner for notorious convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, aka the “Merchant of Death.”

Unless this can re-enter and remain in the public spotlight, along with any pressure on the government, Britney Griner will not get the treatment she deserves as one of the greatest basketball players of her generation. That the massive disparity between how NBA and WNBA players are compensated laid the foundation for her to be in this position is the harsh reality these leagues face today. Yet it pales compared to the uncertain reality Griner faces today in a Moscow jail.

A Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, Aron Solomon, JD, is the chief legal analyst for Today’s Esquire. He has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was elected to Fastcase 50, recognizing the top 50 legal innovators in the world.

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Leave no one behind: Building an LGBTQ+ movement for all

A just society is only achievable by investing in dignity of the marginalized

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Despite the expansion of LGBTQ+ civil rights and liberties in D.C., some of which we proudly attribute to GLAA’s stalwart activism for the past 51 years, the most vulnerable members of our community continue to suffer from poverty, homelessness, criminalization, discrimination, social isolation, and preventable death. A jaw-dropping 40% of homeless youth in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ people experience hunger at twice the rate of straight people, and right here in D.C., the Office of Human Rights reports that employers are more likely to interview a less-qualified cisgender job applicant than a more-qualified transgender applicant.

So for our 2022 candidate ratings, GLAA decided to emphasize that racial and economic justice are LGBTQ+ justice issues. While we recognize the importance of openly LGBTQ+ candidates, we know one’s identity does not indicate where they stand on critical issues. Something many of us have learned the hard way, and something GLAA leadership recognizes not championing sooner as a mistake. What matters most is a candidate’s demonstrated record and vision to support the LGBTQ+ community in its entirety.

It is not enough for candidates to respond only to the needs of those who historically have held the most power in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly white cisgender gay men, in order to tout support of the entire community. The LGBTQ+ community is so many different people, and it is time we push candidates to consider and address us in our entirety. For too long, many LGBTQ+ people have felt rejected and betrayed by our community’s movement priorities, narratives about what our community stands for, and decisions on who is valued and who is selected to represent or lead us. And, while GLAA understands no one politician or organization can erase these community divides, we aim to be intentional in our approach to dismantle that which stands in our entire community’s way toward liberation. That is why, in 2022 we decided to rate candidates on their responses and records of support on issues that impact the most marginalized members of the LGBTQ+ community. None of us is free until all of us are free.

Throughout GLAA’s history we have focused on securing LGBTQ+ rights, which have mostly strengthened the legal protections of people privileged enough to take advantage of them. GLAA decided to focus the Leave No One Behind: 2022 Election Guide and questionnaire on racial and economic justice with an LGBTQ+ lens. We did this to build on our victories, such as successfully advocating for the defunding of the Metropolitan Police Department’s vice squad in the 1970s, and to learn from our mistakes.

It is our belief that a just, peaceful, and vibrant society is only achievable by actively investing in the security and dignity of the poor and marginalized members of all our communities. Our questionnaire intentionally acts in solidarity with D.C. anti-poverty, anti-stigma, and anti-overdose campaigns, which are largely led by trans and queer people of color.

Ratings are on a scale of +/-10 points: yes/no responses on questionnaire (+/-2); substance of response (+/-4); and candidate’s public record (+/-4). Candidates earned partial credit for the yes/no category if they partially agreed with the question. Four issues received more than 91% agreement: increasing the affordable housing stock for the poorest residents, housing people using government funded vouchers, fully funding the Office of Human Rights, and better oversight to improve conditions in the DC Jail.

Three issues received 70-79% candidates’ support, and over 90% when including candidates who issued partial support: Repealing the sub-minimum wage, decriminalization of drug use, and reducing the population of D.C. jail by 30%.

Finally, the least supported policies were decriminalization of consensual sex work and divesting from the Metropolitan Police Department and investing in violence prevention and recidivism prevention programs. Even still, there was remarkable consensus: over 2/3 or 66% of candidates who issued total or partial support.

We are encouraged by the remarkable level of consensus on all of our issues, signaling that D.C. is ready for transformative change that at its core addresses the District’s current poverty, unaffordable housing, community and police-based violence, and overdose crises.

GLAA is excited to see more LGBTQ+ people on ballots. More exciting, however, is the number of politicians with fully realized and integrated LGBTQ+ policies in their platforms. Policies that extend across race and class lines. GLAA firmly believes all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, can be stewards of LGBTQ+ liberation. It is our hope that readers find these ratings not as endorsements, but as a starting point to imagine what is possible if local officials are guided by D.C. residents to use their elected power to create new possibilities that leave no one behind.

This opinion piece was signed by the 2022 Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance board of directors.

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GLAA has lost its way and should close

Their ratings no longer make an iota of difference in an election

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(Blade file photo by Pete Exis)

The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), once a respected organization, has now lost its way. It once represented all the members of the LGBTQ+ community, clearly no longer the case, as one can tell based on their questionnaire and ratings. They now represent only the far left in the community and are seeking to represent more than LGBTQ+ people as the statement from their current president suggests. That is not the role of GLAA.

One of the questions in this year’s questionnaire that candidates were asked to respond to is: “Do you support divesting from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to further invest in vital programs, including anti-poverty, violence prevention, crisis intervention, and reentry?” If you didn’t say yes, you lost points. This shows how out of touch they are as the DC Council just voted unanimously, on a first vote, to raise the budget of the MPD. The approved budget also includes increased funding for other vital programs. There’s no indication GLAA ever spoke to Council members on this issue.

Its website lists five officers, all men, with a blurb on each. The one for the president, in addition to listing past and current employment, says, “When he is not organizing, he loves asking people about their Myers Briggs Type (he is ENFP, for the record), doing gay crimes (the basics like drugs and public sex), having Spicy Vanilla sex, dancing to hot beats on the dance floor, practicing vulnerability, plotting revolution against capitalism and other forms of oppression.” He is entitled to his views. But I question how his leading the GLAA represents the broader LGBTQ+ community.

Over the years I’ve had issues with some of what GLAA has done and some of the issues they focused on. But the organization always represented the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community in their questionnaire. Candidates getting a rating from the organization could feel it represented a wide range of opinion in the community. I would hope no candidate tries to pawn the current ratings off as any kind of support from the broader LGBTQ + community.

In the past you always knew their officers, including Rick Rosendall, Bob Summersgill and Jeff Coudriet among others, were involved with D.C. government and knew the issues in-depth. They knew the candidates. Responding to their questionnaire over the years was always interesting. Rick often was the one who spent hours drafting the questions. I always wondered why it was never enough to say yes you agree with their premise. Instead, you had to say it in hundreds, even thousands, of words to earn points. I know as I have filled out questionnaires for many candidates.

Today their website lists nine project areas, none with anything accomplished since 2016. The blog has nothing on any recent budget issues or legislation pertaining to the LGBTQ+ community, only information about the questionnaire. They claim to lobby the Council and monitor government agencies, but there is no indication of any meetings or testimony since 2017.

We can thank GLAA for the fact that today no politician can win office in D.C. without being supportive of the LGBTQ community. However, today their ratings no longer make an iota of difference in an election. Since this is now the only thing they do it’s time to close up shop. We have moved past the time in D.C. when a small number of people can sit in a room rating candidates they don’t know, on issues that don’t represent the community they are supposed to be representing.

So personally, I say thank you to all the people who worked hard over many years for GLAA to help move the LGBTQ community forward. I recognize there is much work still to be done but GLAA is not the organization to do it. We must work to ensure economic and civil justice for all members of our community; health equity for transgender persons; senior housing for our community; and employment opportunities for all, among other issues. But there are other LGBTQ organizations, and community organizations, doing these things better and the few members GLAA might still have should be directed to those other organizations.

If as their website claims they are planning an anniversary celebration, it should be one to honor all the people who in the past 50 years of the organization, worked hard and were successful in making my life and the lives of so many LGBTQ people in the District of Columbia and around the nation better. That would be an exciting way to say goodbye and celebrate the organization whose time it is to close.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

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An unlikely revolution is happening at Christian universities

More than half have enacted LGBTQ non-discrimination policies

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Recent headlines have been filled with messages of doom and gloom for LGBTQ people. From bans on transgender women competing in sports to “don’t say gay” laws, it seems evident that conservative Republicans are freshly committed to rolling back the rights of LGBTQ people across the United States.

Yet, despite such recent setbacks, a student-led movement for LGBTQ inclusion is gaining ground in what would seem to be one of the unlikeliest settings — Christian colleges and universities.

Over the past few years, I’ve collected extensive data on U.S. Christian colleges and universities’ policies toward LGBTQ students. In one study, I found that 55% of all Christian colleges and universities in the United States have nondiscrimination policies inclusive of sexual orientation. In another recent study, I found that nearly half of all Christian colleges and universities are home to officially recognized LGBTQ student groups.

Even some of the most conservative Christian colleges and universities have changed their approach to LGBTQ students. When analyzing data collected in 2013, I found that nearly one-third of all Christian colleges and universities had adopted bans on so-called “homosexual acts” or “homosexual behavior” in their student handbooks. Yet, when reviewing Christian colleges and universities’ handbooks again over the past year, I found that under one-fourth of Christian colleges and universities had such discriminatory bans.

Why are some Christian colleges and universities becoming more accommodating—and even welcoming—to LGBTQ students?

There are several major reasons, but one of the most important is that several Christian denominations already embrace their LGBTQ members. Denominations such as the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Disciples of Christ, and Presbyterian Church USA, for example, allow ministers to officiate same-sex weddings. An increasing number of nondenominational churches also affirm LGBTQ people. Those Christian colleges and universities that are already associated with affirming denominations are certainly among the most likely to affirm their LGBTQ students.

Another reason that many Christian colleges and universities are becoming welcoming toward LGBTQ students is that they do not necessarily believe their primary mission is to hold all students to the specific religious tenets of their associated denomination. Rather, they see their primary mission as providing an important service (education) to the broader society. Just as Christian hospitals do not refuse to provide medical treatment to people who are not members of their associated denominations, many Christian colleges and universities have chosen not to deny people an education simply because certain people are not members of their associated denominations.

A rising number of Christian colleges and universities also recognize the harms that occur when people are discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. A recent survey by Religious Exemption Accountability Project shows that 12% of all Christian college and university students self-identify as LGBTQ. Because studies show that LGBTQ people in non-affirming Christian colleges and universities report greater rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, many Christian schools understand they would be harming a significant number of their students if they continued to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

And still other schools are simply concerned with their bottom lines. The United States is projected to go over a “demographic cliff” in 2025, at which time the number of 18-year-olds nationwide will drop dramatically. Some reports say that one-third of all private colleges and universities nationwide will face major financial crises over the next decade, causing them to close or pursue mergers. Many Christian colleges and universities recognize that adopting discriminatory policies toward LGBTQ students would alienate significant portions of their potential student body.

Certainly, despite these encouraging trends, those who are committed to LGBTQ rights should not be complacent. Many schools have still been slow to extend nondiscrimination protections and housing accommodations to trans students. And the Religious Exemption Accountability Project estimates that as many as 100,000 LGBTQ students are currently enrolled at Christian colleges and universities that still refuse to affirm the dignity and rights of LGBTQ people. That organization recently filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, challenging the federal government’s policy of providing loans even to Christian colleges and universities that otherwise violate Title IX protections for LGBTQ students.

It is likely the case that some Christian colleges and universities will not change their policies toward LGBTQ rights unless they are legally required to do so. Still, at Christian colleges and universities across the United States, LGBTQ students are not waiting around. LGBTQ students are actively mobilizing to bring about inclusive policies at their schools, and at a surprising number of schools, they are succeeding.

Jonathan S. Coley is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University and a Public Fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute.

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Griner's release was met with jubilation, but also raised questions about the deal's implications for US-Russia relations and the potential for future hostage-taking.

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Inside Joe Biden’s Faustian pact with Russia to secure Brittney

Three weeks ago, the American basketball star Brittney Griner arrived at a Russian penal colony known for torture, beatings and slave labour to begin a nine-year sentence following her arrest at a Moscow airport in February for possession of vaping cartridges containing hashish oil.

But in a stunning twist on Thursday, Griner’s plight as an unwitting pawn in a high-stakes geopolitical struggle came to an abrupt end, as she arrived in Abu Dhabi from Moscow and boarded a plane home to reunite with her family. She landed in San Antonio, Texas, early Friday morning.

In exchange for Griner’s release, the US released Viktor Bout, a notorious arms trafficker who was serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring to kill US citizens and aiding a terrorist organisation.

The deal was met with jubilation from Griner’s family and supporters. But the controversial swap for Bout — as well as the exclusion of Paul Whelan, another US citizen imprisoned in Russia — also drew criticism and raised questions about how America’s adversaries might leverage arrests of its citizens in the future.

US officials began working toward Griner’s release as soon as she was apprehended in Russia in February, but the effort became more concentrated on prisoner swap negotiations once the State Department declared in May that she had been wrongfully detained.

In July, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on the phone for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. During the call, Blinken pressed Lavrov to accept a “substantial proposal” from Washington to release Griner and the former marine Whelan, who has been detained in Russia since 2018 on what the US and his family say are trumped-up espionage charges.

Americans had offered to free Bout, people familiar with the discussions said, but the Russians said they also wanted the release of Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy agency who was convicted of murder in Germany last year.

In the ensuing months, officials said, Washington made a number of offers to Russia in an attempt to secure the release of Griner and Whelan.

However, Biden administration officials said that in recent weeks it became clear that Moscow would only accept a one-for-one swap. According to one senior administration official, “the choice was bringing Brittney Griner home right now or bringing no Americans home from Russia right now”.

Despite the Biden administration’s insistence that they had no choice but to exclude Whelan from the deal, Republican lawmakers and others denounced the decision, as well as facilitating the release of Bout, who is also known as “the merchant of death”.

“The Biden administration has allowed Viktor Bout, a dangerous arms dealer who was convicted of conspiring to kill American law enforcement, to walk free,” said Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

“This move to appease Vladimir Putin will only encourage further hostage taking by Russian security forces,” he added.

US officials described Biden’s choice as a painful one, adding that they would continue to work for Whelan’s release. Washington previously secured the release of Trevor Reed, another former marine, via a prisoner swap in April.

People familiar with Thursday’s prisoner exchange likened the episode to “a scene from the Cold War”, with Russian and American planes meeting on the tarmac at an airport in Abu Dhabi.

The Russian plane carrying Griner arrived first, one of the people said. American officials and people familiar with the events said the basketball star was upbeat on the tarmac, saying she was looking forward to returning home.

The Griner-Bout swap marks a rare instance in which the US and Russia have been able to find common ground since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sending the west’s relationship with Moscow to its lowest ebb since the Cuban missile crisis.

According to people familiar with the matter, the Americans and Russians directly negotiated the details of the swaps, with UAE officials including president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan helping to facilitate the mechanics of the transfer.

It is not unusual for third countries to aid in brokering international diplomatic agreements such as prisoner swaps between hostile countries.

Sheikh Mohammed and Putin discussed the matter when they met in Russia in October, and they spoke on the phone on Wednesday, people familiar with the meetings said. Yousef al-Otaiba, UAE ambassador to the US, was present for the exchange on Thursday and had helped to co-ordinate details on the American side.

On Thursday, some pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the swap as a return to diplomacy. “Everyone sees through this exchange that Moscow and Washington are holding secret negotiations and can make a deal,” Sergei Markov, a political scientist and former member of Russia’s parliament, wrote on Telegram. “And everyone hopes that means Moscow and Washington can make a deal to end the war in Ukraine.”

However, analysts and US officials said that while the breakthrough was a sign that the two sides could get things done when their interests align, it was not evidence of any larger thaw in relations. Biden administration officials added that the recent conversations with Russia about Griner and other prisoners were limited to the release of wrongfully detained Americans.

“The exchange doesn’t do anything to change the situation for bilateral relations. There are lots of issues where they are in open confrontation,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He said the otherwise dire state of relations between Russia and the west was thrown into sharp relief last week, when Moscow abruptly pulled out of talks on renewing the New Start treaty, the only remaining agreement governing the countries’ nuclear arsenals.

“This is a global stability issue: the last remainders of arms control are falling apart, which could lead to an arms race and a higher risk of dangerous incidents,” he said. “The trajectory we’re on is making that all the more likely.”

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After her release, Griner returned to the US and has been adjusting to life back home, with her first public appearance being a WNBA preseason game.

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Content: WNBA: Brittney Griner makes first comeback after being jailed in Russia: 'It's a miracle she's back here'
Author: Wu Muer
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American star center Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia for 10 months, returned to the United States for the first time since being released in December to play for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA pre-season warm-up.
Even if the team is 71: 90 against the Los Angeles Sparks, Glenna's performance is still a long way from the level of the game, no one cares about the result, coach Vanessa Nygaard and Mercury teammates are excited, opponents of the Sparks players tightly hugged her, Glenna said this battle is significant, saying: "Never take any day for granted."
Glenna (right) returns to basketball for the first time since returning to the United States. (Reuters)
Glenna, 32, is one of the most famous female basketball stars in the United States. She was selected to the WNBA star team eight times and won the Olympic gold medal twice for the United States.
Possession of cannabis is illegal in Russia, but the standard penalty for possession of cannabis oil under 2 grams or cannabis under 6 grams is a fine or imprisonment for up to 15 days.
The United States initially attempted diplomatic mediation without success, alleging that Glenna was "illegally arrested" by the Russian side, and the incident became a new chapter in the political turmoil between the United States and Russia.
In September last year, a Russian court sentenced Glenna to nine years in prison. After her appeal was dismissed, the United States and Russia finally reached a prisoner exchange agreement and were released from prison on December 8.
She has returned to the team training earlier, Saturday for the first time in the game, is selected to play 17 minutes, the first minute has scored two points, the 6 feet 9 inches of the center long sparrow, the performance inevitably has a "rust" sense, 5 shot 2, with the penalty ball scored 10 points, and 3 rebounds, she knows that the distance from the best state is still far, after a disaster she said: Sitting here, I never thought I could play basketball so quickly. "
Glenna took part in a live video interrogation at a Russian prison last year. (AP)
“I don ’ t know what will happen, but I ’ m grateful to be here. ”
I won ’ t take it for granted any day since, ” she said. “Hearing the national anthem again feels completely different. ”
It's like being in the Olympics, you sit there, the gold medal is about to wear the neck, the national flag is raised, the national anthem is played, and the feeling is very different. "
For the first time since 2021, Glenna is competing in a Mercury suit. “Being here today means a lot … it feels good, it definitely feels appreciated. ”
I can ’ t wait to get back to a day where it was just basketball. ” Yes, because everyone was completely distracted by her return to the game, even the team ’ s head coach.
Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard said that the national anthem and the introduction of the moment, the whole team is excited, "we look at each other, the chicken skin straight up."
Last year we had everything here all year, and now I ’ m starting to feel emotional.
It was an absolute miracle just to see Glenna come out again, it was amazing, and it made me skin again. ”
Glenna has twice won Olympic gold medals for the United States, including the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. (Getty Images)
Glinna's return to the field also rekindled Mercury's hopes for the title.
She was the 2013 WNBA draft pick, was selected by Mercury and has been playing since then, winning the team's third WNBA championship in 2014. She averaged 17.7 points and 7.6 rebounds in nine years of WNBA career, and Mercury won the final of the playoffs for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018.
In 2022, the team lost to Glenna, and the team was defeated by the Las Vegas Aces in the first round of the playoffs 0: 2.
In the comeback war, Glenna did not perform as expected, thinking that she was detained in Russia for 10 months, during which time she was interrogated, sentenced to heavy prison, imprisoned in a mysterious prison where the outside world can not know the location, coupled with lack of language, psychological torture and suffering, to be able to step out of the field is actually a victory.
She confessed, “It ’ s far from what I hoped, but it ’ s back on track, and we ’ re doing the right thing. ”
The WNBA 2023 regular season kicks off on Friday, May 19, with Mercury playing against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Greta returned to the game for the first time with a lot of expressions:
+ 1

Griner's case highlighted the challenges faced by American citizens detained abroad and the complexities of diplomatic negotiations in high-stakes cases.

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Content: - The Washington Times - Friday, July 1, 2022

As pressure mounts on President Biden to take more aggressive action to get Moscow to release jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner, the international chatter increasing points to a prisoner swap for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Russian media and Bout’s lawyer, Steve Zissou, say Russian officials want to secure Bout’s release and that Griner, who has been locked up in Russia since February, could be part of a deal.

“I would be surprised if any American was repatriated without Viktor Bout also being sent home to his family,” Zissou told The Washington Times.

Bout is serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison. He was convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, delivering anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization, charges his lawyer disputes.

Another detained American, former Marine Paul Whelan, who was arrested in Russia on espionage charges in 2018, could also be part of a prisoner swap for Bout.

Mr. Zissou said the deal would likely have to include Bout. The lawyer met last month with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, who said that freeing Bout “was Russia’s number one priority,” according to Mr. Zissou.

Griner, meanwhile, made her first appearance in court on Friday and was accused of possessing “a significant amount of cannabis oil,” which is a banned substance in Russia. She faces likely conviction and a decade in prison when her trial resumes on July 7.

Griner, 31, was arrested at the airport in Moscow on Feb. 17 for allegedly carrying vape cartridges with hashish oil. She was visiting the country to play for a Russian basketball team after the conclusion of the WNBA season.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Griner is being held as a political pawn, The Associated Press reported.

“The facts are that the famous athlete was detained in possession of prohibited medication containing narcotic substances,” Peskov told reporters on Friday. “In view of what I’ve said, it can’t be politically motivated.”

Still, Russia’s desire to free Bout complicates matters for Mr. Biden, who is weathering intense criticism for failing to secure the release of Griner, a center for the Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Dozens of organizations, including women’s and LGBTQ groups, have pressed Mr. Biden to step up efforts to secure Griner’s release. They called on the president “to make a deal to get Brittney back home to America immediately and safely.”

While Bout’s lawyer disputes the charges against him, Bout was convicted of far more serious crimes than Griner’s drug charge, which could make it difficult for the Biden administration to agree to a swap.

Griner’s high-profile detainment comes at a historically difficult point in the diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Griner was arrested just days before Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops to invade Ukraine on February 24.

The U.S. has condemned the invasion and responded by providing Ukraine with weapons and other support to defend itself from Mr. Putin’s forces.

With Griner in detention, Russian officials are now intensifying efforts to secure the release of Bout, whose targeting and conviction by the United States has long been viewed as an attack on Russian sovereignty.

Russian media is reporting that a swap for Bout is on the table.

“Currently, talks are underway on exchanging Bout for Griner,” Tass news reported, citing an unnamed Russian source.

Nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” Bout was convicted in 2011 in a U.S. government sting operation of planning to smuggle arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The witnesses hired to portray FARC told Bout the arms would be used to target U.S. military serving in Colombia.

Bout, 55, is about five years from completing his sentence and is in failing health, his lawyer said.

Mr. Zissou said he is trying to elevate the circumstances surrounding his client’s case to improve his appeal as a candidate for a prisoner swap.

The U.S. targeted Bout while he was living in Moscow and retired from running an air transport company that also smuggled arms from one country to another.

The U.S. government paid more than $10 million to criminals as part of the operation to catch Bout.

“Entrapment is exactly what happened,” Mr. Zissou said.

Mr. Zissou said exchanging Griner for Bout is “a no brainer,” because his client will be freed in a few years regardless.

Last week, Russian officials extended Griner’s pretrial detention by six months. With Russia’s acquittal rate in criminal cases at less than 1%, it’s unlikely she will be able to return to the U.S. without a prisoner exchange.

Pressure is also on Mr. Biden to also secure the release of Mr. Whelan, 52, who is serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian prison camp.

“It’s certainly conceivable that a swap for Whelan and Bout gets agreed to, and then at the end of Griner’s trial, if she’s convicted, she just gets pardoned and sent home,” Mr. Zissou said.

In a statement provided to The Times, the State Department declined to provide details about the talks to free Griner.

“We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” a State Department spokesman said. “The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Brittney Griner. The U.S. government will continue to provide appropriate support to Griner and her family. We will continue to press for her release.”

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.

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