The anti-American atmosphere in Russia is out of the charts, and now Americans who had the misfortune of being taken prisoner by Russia are being used as pawns in the Kremlin’s brutal game. Basketball star Britney Griner, detained in Russia on drug charges, and two US veterans captured by Russian troops in Ukraine last week – Alexander Drucke and Andy Huyn – have been portrayed by Kremlin-controlled state media as a bargaining chip in Russia’s crusade against West.
As Greenner’s prison was extended, the US State Department reclassified her status as “illegally detained,” meaning that her case was placed under the supervision of the president’s special envoy for hostages. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov opposed the designation, telling NBC News: “She has violated Russian law and is now being prosecuted. It’s not about being a hostage. “
Despite the Kremlin’s denials, the Russian media machine has changed its tone when it comes to Griner. On Tuesday, Olga Skabeeva, the host of a state-funded 60-minute television show, said: “We also have an American basketball player caught with drugs at the moment, so we have something like an exchange fund.” As early as May, without citing a source in the Moscow Oblast Public Oversight Commission, TASS reported that talks on replacing Griner with Russian arms dealer Victor Booth were moving actively forward.
The Kremlin has long been determined to release some Russians in US custody by arresting Americans who could later be exchanged. In July 2018, Russian MP Leonid Kalashnikov commented in 60 minutes on the arrest of convicted Russian spy Maria Butina, suggesting: “Let’s arrest an American here and this is … Butina was arrested, let’s arrest an American woman here immediately.” . The same idea has been repeatedly highlighted in various state media television programs.
During a 60-minute broadcast on Tuesday, State Duma member Alexei Zhuravlyov deliberately mispronounced the surnames of Drucke and Huynn in a manner that resembled obscene language. Describing American prisoners of war captured in Ukraine as “stupid Americans,” Zhuravlyov said he might be less interested in their fate: “They must either be liquidated or exchanged for [Viktor] duel. We need to get our citizens out of America. Thank God we have such opportunities. ”
As early as 2019, after Butin’s release from US custody, state TV presenter Yevgeny Popov told The Daily Beast that Viktor Booth and Konstantin Yaroshenko would soon follow suit and be returned to Russia. Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years for conspiring to smuggle cocaine in the United States. In April 2022, he was exchanged in a prisoner trade for former US Marine Trevor Reid, who was imprisoned in Russia on charges of assaulting police.
In addition to being mentioned as a lever for the extraction of wanted Russian prisoners from the United States, seven-time WNBA All Star Britney Greener received very limited publicity in the Russian state media. It embodies the tribe of prejudices often demonstrated by the Kremlin’s state television mouthpieces, including racism, homophobia, and pronounced anti-American leanings. For example, White House spokeswoman Karin Jean-Pierre is routinely described by state television propagandists as a “dark-skinned lesbian,” with state television presenter Evgeny Popov predicting that in a few months she will be replaced by a “white, heterosexual male.” Vladimir Solovyov host of a popular state television program, The Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, along with his guests, routinely calls Jean-Pierre Chunga-Changa, a diminutive, racist reference to the portrayal of black islanders in Soviet caricature.
During an interview Wednesday with Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Solovyov, dressed in a red sweatshirt adorned with a Soviet sickle and hammer, complained: “Western hysteria does not stop for a moment. The world has never seen such a crazy level of Russophobia. ” Zaharova agreed and added: “Evil is not omnipotent. They will receive a sharp response in return. In the past we were held to diplomatic correctness, but now we respond in ways that are useful above all … First of all, we will think about our own citizens … [Westerners] are sick, infected with xenophobia, racism and nationalism. “
“The Americans and the British have lit this fire and they must burn in it.
Tensions boomed on Wednesday morning at 60 minutes, during a discussion about a diplomatic officer of the US Naval Attaché in Moscow, who reportedly took a picture of the Russian “Z” symbol, which represents the invasion of Ukraine, along with a gesture using the extended middle part -finger. MP Zhuravlyov was angry: “Let this bitch come out one more time. We will find him. Exit the embassy, get out. I will personally explain to you, bastard, what country you are in and how you should treat these symbols. Zhuravlyov continued: “This is a direct threat from me, a direct threat … I can spit on his [diplomatic] immunity. “
Putting their hopes on Trump and US Republicans, Russian lawmakers and senior experts have repeatedly stressed their desire to see the Republican Party push the Democrats in the interim and Biden in the next presidential election. Appearing on the show “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” on Wednesday, participants voiced an idea of how American captives could play a role in the Democrats’ victory in the midterm elections.
The host Vladimir Solovyov thought aloud: “How will [the US and the UK] reacts if Donetsk [People’s] Republic condemns all foreign mercenaries – Americans and British – to death and executes? Political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev joined in: “And what will happen if this happens one day before the congressional elections? I think it would be very politically correct … But it’s not really just about shooting some Americans. The point is not to allow the Americans to escape the great European war, but to involve them in it. Every day, every American should know that the new 15 cents are added to the price of gas because Biden went to war. We must step up our efforts to involve the Americans in it … America and Britain must be burned to the ground in this conflict. “
Evstafiev grimly stressed: “The Americans and the British lit this fire and they must burn in it.”
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