The Former US Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia since 2018 and accused of espionage, he has said he is disappointed with the government for not having done more to free him. The same day that the American basketball player Brittney Griner was handed over to the US, Whelan welcomed the release of grinnerbut regretted that more has not been done for him to follow the same path. The United States and Russia carried out a prisoner exchange between Griner and Russian arms dealer Viktor But, known as the ‘merchant of death’.but is already in russian territory. Public television showed images of a telephone conversation between But and his wife, Alla, and his mother, Raísa, in which the Russian says that “everything is fine.”
The return of the so-called “merchant of death” to Russia was also confirmed by deputy María Bútina, who in the past spent 15 months in a US prison after being accused of “conspiracy” and supposedly acting as “foreign agent” without authorization.
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According to the Russian air authorities, the plane carrying But made a brief stopover in Makhachkala (southern Russia) to respond.
The Griner basketball star was arrested in February and sentenced in August to 9 years in prison in Russia on charges of possession Y drug smugglingwhile But was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US for arms trafficking. The exchange of But for Griner took place today in the United Arab Emirates.