Hi, good morning. Thanks for joining us. On morning
rush, we're following breaking news this morning. The
big story of the day. W. N. B. A. Star Brittney Griner
is coming home on her way as we speak. Yeah, really big
news. She's been detained in Russia since february on
charges of drug possession. Big breaking news since
we've been on the air, no one saw this coming today has
been off the radar for a little bit, but obviously a
lot going on behind the scenes again, Brittney Grin
at least today as part of a prisoner swap earlier this
year, of course, she was arrested there in Russia. She
was there as part of her, you know, playing basketba
and on her way back home, officials in Russia found
Vape pens and cannabis oil in her luggage. She was then
arrested, of course, ultimately sentenced to serve nine
years behind bars at a Russian penal colony, no less.
Well, since then, U. S. Officials have been demandin
her return home lots of negotiations, but little
success until of course, we got the big announcement
this morning. Obviously a lot has happened in the last
several days and weeks. The news so big. In fact,
President Biden addressed the country and held a press
conference just a few minutes ago. Listen, these past
few months have been held for Brittany and for charlie
and uh, and her entire family and all the teammates
back home. People all across the country have learned
about Brittany's story, advocated for release, stood
with her through throughout this terrible ordeal and I
know that support meant a lot to her family. I'm glad
to be able to say that Brittany is in good spirits. Sh
uh she's relieved to finally be heading home and the
fact remains that she's lost months of her life
experience, the needless trauma, she deserves space,
privacy and time. The trade agreed upon today involve
international arms dealer Vikto Bout bout was being
held in federal prison after he was arrested by the
drug enforcement agency in 2008. He was convicted of
conspiring to kill americans an was serving a 25 year
sentence at a prison in Illinois. Now, we should note
here, it's a very important note. The grinder for about
exchange does not include retired U. S. Marine Paul
Whelan in prison in Russia. He had been in Russian
custody for nearly four years out of 16 years. He was
sentenced, he was convicted on espionage charges that
the us has called false. Indeed, and President Bi
made note of that specifically today saying Russi
simply treating his case differently. That America will
not give up on its efforts to get him home as well,
acknowledging his family Must have very mixed feelings
about the news today as you may have seen there in that
sound by not just the president speaking today, b
also grinders wife moments ago saying before she is
happy that her wife now is literally in the air on the
way back to the US but she still feels of course a lot
of sympathy for the wheel and family and other families
of course dealing with what she had to go through for
the past nearly 10 months. Um Today my family is whole
but as you all are aware there's so many other fam
who are not whole and so BG is not here to say this but
I will gladly speak on her behalf and say that B. G.
And I will remain committed to the work of getting
every american home including paul whose family is in
our hearts today as we celebrat B. G. B. At home, we
do understand that there are still people out here who
are enduring what I endured the last nine months of
missing tremendously their love ones. I just had a
personal note. Her wife Cheryl also saying that her
number one emotion today was quote sincere gratitude
for everything the administrati did to make this
moment possible and toward the end just said I'm just
going to smile right now as she awaits her wife's
return back here to us soil must be the longest amount
of hours of whatever flight it is from you. However
long that is that has to be the longest amount of time
for her. Just waiting for Brittany. Let's go to Stuart
Smith, he's in Moscow with the latest developments uh
Stuart. We talked just a few minutes ago. Um And like
rob mentioned we did not know this was gonna happen.
This is something that has been really tightly under
wraps for a long time. The last that we knew was that
Brittany was sent to a penal colony. We knew that she
had been there for the last few weeks at least, but not
knowing where her exact locatio was. And there's a lot
of back and forth about that. But what are you hearing
on the ground in Moscow about the swap and the
negotiations as a whole? Because Brittany's wife,
Cheryl mentioned, you know, the was a lot of behind
the scenes things and people that had their hands in
this. Yeah, let's start off with then what's happened
over the last few weeks because indeed it did go quiet.
We didn't, for example, know exactly which prison
Brittney Griner was being held in in the region of
Russia, which is well known for its prisons, We knew
she was there, but we didn't know which one on top of
that. Looking at back at previous statements from
officials, the last we heard was from the Russian
Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov this time last week at
the time. Then he said that intelligence Services
the United States and Russia were actively discussing
the situation and hoped for some kind of resolution
soon. That's not an unusually unusual statement fro
the Russian Foreign Ministry, the last, we heard from
the United States here in Moscow, the top diplomat here
at the moment, was that Russia as late as the 28th of
november. So not the monday gone before but the monday
before that on the 28th of november, Russia had not
provided a serious response. So whether this
constitutes now a serious respo or whether this is a
backing down of some kind by one of the sides, we just
don't know of course because we weren't in the room.
But initially there had been a lot of talk amongst the
United States and Russia about exactly this swap one
for one or two for one and it was always Britney
grinders name that was mentioned as well as Viktor
Bout's. So it it's not clear what had to change to get
us here. One thing that has happened over the last few
weeks is the United States has made it slightly easier
for the Russian embassy in the United States to work.
There's been massive problems for years to be honest
with the way that the embassies in both countries are
struggling to work under tough geopolitical condit
So perhaps that was relevant. But in terms of actually
obviously what's changed, it's not clear and you know
paul well mentioned also deemed wrongfully detained by
the White House not included in this deal. So what do
we know about his situation there right now? Yeah
that's right. Well his lawyer has spoken earlier today
and the lawyer believes that discussions are continuing
about his possible exchange. So like the U. S.
President joe biden said he hasn't been forgotten in
all of this. Indeed there is a difference between the
charges levied against them. One relates to espionage.
The other drug smuggling, you know quote in all of
these matters. This is what the Russian justice
ministry has decided to go with. So there are, there's
a difference in the level of the charge and there's
also a difference in the amount of attention of course.
So Brittney Griner has received the majority of
attention, especially over the last year because of
course her imprisonment was new and she is more as an
international basketball player more famous and so
fish for the people involved in this discussion. Sh
was a bigger fish quote for the two sides similarly
victor boot. A Russian citizen who the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs here has been trying to get for many
years. He was the obvious candidate for some kind of
prisoner swap and Stewart. I don't want to dampen the
moment because our country should be celebrating the
fact that that Brittney Griner is on her way home after
all these months of what she has endured. But looking
at this objectively, I would imagine that Russia
considers this to be a win on two fronts. One, as we've
been talking about paul Whelan, not a part of this deal
charged with a more serious crime of espionage, but
number two, we're getting back someone who was charged
with what we would see in this country as an
extraordinarily minor crime involving cannabis. While
Russia is getting back someone who is serving a 25 year
sentence in Illinois for conspiring to kill americans
in terms of crimes. This is not an equal swap at all.
Russia will play this as a win. Yes. Mhm. Yeah, indeed
Russia and is playing it as a win. That's what the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs says. They are painting
this as there have been discussions for an incredi
long time. But Washington has finally back down in this
step. Also, the Russian ombudsman here has been calling
this a New Year's gift, New Year being the main
celebration here effectively a christmas present and
saying that for victor boot, this is the outcome of
many years of discussion and one which rectifies a
massive injustice. Remember the Kremlin here says that
he was imprisoned on baseless and biased reasons. So it
is indeed being painted as a win for Russia in terms of
equating the two crimes, Russia would say that she was
sentenced as per Russian law that she was involved not
just in smuggling, but also it of possession. And the
prosecutor always said that they did not believe this
was an unintentional move. So all of that adding up to
her eventual sentence. Of course, her defense said it's
unprecedented for this amount of cannabis, which was so
small for the fact that she pleaded guilty early on.
And also for the fact that there were major issues wi
the way she was detained, it was a highly unusual
sentence and that's why throughout all of this, us
called it a politically motivated trial and detention.
And you know, we saw President biden saying she show
quote grit and dignity in that trial in Russia. You
know, the White House had said this was a top priority.
And we've heard a dribbles about the negotiations
the past months about this. Um at times it seemed more
strained at times. It seemed like there was cautious
optimism. We know Russia last week indicated that a
deal may be possible. So are there any indications on
the timing of this? What was the factor that made the
release possible now or is that something really not
going to ever know here? Yeah, I would know that the
last we heard from the Foreign Minister was that it wa
us and Russian intelligence services that we'r
debating her status, which to me means that indeed the
ultimate reason for this release may be something that
is highly classified. We're not just talking about the
diplomatic stuff, although perh that was relevant. I
mean, the embassy disputes between Russia and the
United States, if it was intelligence officials that
were meeting, not necessarily from any kind of the
presidential administration or the foreign ministries
or the Secretary of State in the United States perhaps
then there's more going on that we will simply not at
least yet be privy to Certainly for Russia's part the
secrecy has been intense And that was when the
negotiations broke down. They got out their worst. When
all of this international pressure came from the United
States and other countries too. That was when Russia
effectively shut down and said if discussions are going
to happen they need to happen behind the scenes. If
there is this continued scrutiny of these discussions
and continued speculation then nothing is going to work
out. Which is why then it went silent for the last few
months on the whole and perhaps why ultimately this did
manage to be achieved. And that's a fascinating point
you make about intelligence officials in all of this
because you can't ignore the context here. And that
this prisoner swap is happening happening at a time
when the U. S. And Russia are very much at odds to put
in modeling because of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine
Do you think the dynamics related to the war played a
role in this uh somehow or is that even possible? Yeah,
it's certainly certainly possible. There were, for
example, Russia does try to make a distinct tries to
distinguish between its various areas foreign policy.
So on the recent failed negotiations on nuclear
it got that far because Russia said it wanted to
differentiate the need for a nuclear weapons treaty
from the ongoing conflict. Which better in mind. Russia
does consider it a proxy war against the United States.
It believes that the US. Is fighting a proxy war
through Ukraine against Russia to ultimately destroy
it. So it's high level states in the minds of Russian
politicians that's what's told to Russian people. And
so that was differentiated when it came to nuclear
weapons. But they said that fell down because the
United States failed to take into account the broader
geopolitical issues, meaning th indeed it does as
hard. The U. S. And Russia tried to differentia
issues of course the larger geopolitics and also tru
which is so massively important in these internationa
negotiations trust wasn't there for that. So something
changed either related to trust or about what sides
felt they could gain from a prisoner swap and that
seems to be it. But unfortunately I just don't know
what exactly that was and maybe someone will tell us.
Alright well we do know Brittney Griner on her way home
on a flight now um which is great news especially
her wife who has been waiting eagerly for her return,
Stuart smith live in Moscow reporting. Of course we'
monitoring this. Developing sto will bring you any
updates that we get as they come in and then