Media Tip Sheets

Britney Griner is Free, but did it take a “dance with the devil” to make it happen?

Thursday, December 8, 2022, By Ellen Mbuqe

Reporters looking for experts to discuss the issues around the release of WNBA star player Britney Griner from a Russian penal colony in exchange for a convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, please see comments from Syracuse University professors.

Brian Taylor, Syracuse University professor of political science and author of The Code of Putinism, is an expert on Russian politics and international relations.

  • “It’s obviously great news that Brittney Griner is coming home. But there will be reasonable questions about the swap, given Viktor Bout’s crimes as one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers and his obvious value to Russia. It is unfortunate that Paul Whelan, who was arrested on what look like trumped-up espionage charges and has been held for four years, was not included in this deal. The prospects for his return now look bleak, given Russia’s position,” said Taylor

David Crane is a distinguished scholar in residence at Syracuse University College of Law and former founding Chief Prosecutor of the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone. Viktor Bout was investigated by the UN for supplying small arms and ammunition to fighters in the Sierra Leone civil war.

Crane’s reaction to the prisoner swap:

  • “The release of Britney Griner from the clutches of Russian tyranny is important and necessary. To achieve that goal sometimes the political environment requires that we ‘dance with the devil’. That ‘devil’ was Viktor Bout, the infamous lord of war who caused so much pain and suffering by selling arms to very dark corners of the world,” said Crane.

 

  • “As Chief Prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in West Africa, called the Special Court for Sierra Leone, I uncovered the insidious acts of Victor Bout in the civil wars in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In large measure, he is individually criminally responsible for the murder, rape, maiming, and mutilation of tens of thousands of human beings in West Africa. Convicted to 25 years in a U.S. Federal Prison, he has languished there for numerous years even now refusing to admit culpability. Justice has been done and he will go down in history as the merchant of death,” said Crane.

To schedule an interview with either Crane or Taylor, please contact Ellen James Mbuqe at ejmbuqe@syr.edu or Vanessa Marquette at vrmarque@syr.edu.