from berlin, there's lots more on our website at d, w dot com ah, 10 months ago this scene seemed almost impossible. busy w n b, a star, brittany griner on a us government plane heading home her release and a prisoner swap is a huge diplomatic success for the biden administration, dealing with a country that has proven time and again to be anything but a reliable negotiating partner. now while it is cause for celebration, greiner, his release is only a partial victory. the u. s. were not able to bring home former marine hall, whelan, who has been held in russia on espionage charges since 2018. as his struggle continues . some us republican slam griner is exchange for a notorious arms dealer as a gift to vladimir putin. i'm nichol frilly him berlin, and this is the day. ah,

do know we're heading to the moon. joyful news for all our reasons. for whatever reason, paul, it is beyond what the russian government has been able to tag. they've potential concession for you 5. 0 to the yeah. so i think we aren't really sure what the with board to know what the likelihood is with people every other than but sure with his entire term. oh, also on the day russia sentences, a prominent kremlin, chronic to aid and a half years in prison, ill, ya, ya, scene is one of the few opposition figures who remained in russia after the invasion of ukraine. the court decided to find alia. valerie, if she ashan guilty of committing

a crime under criminal code of the russian federation, and imposed a sentence of imprisonment for 8 years and 6 months in a standard correctional colony. don't worry, any one who thinks putin is going to ru, for 8 years. he's been very optimistic. he he was basketball star, brittany griner is back on us soil after being released from a russian penal colony. this is her us government plan. touching down in san antonio, texas earlier today, a deal done between the us and russian government saw her released an exchange for a notorious russian arms dealer. the man nicknamed the merchant of death is accused of fueling arms caught armed conflict around the world and supplying al qaeda and the taliban. among many others, a prisoner swapped on the tarmac of ab without the airport. it was hill but

captivity ended for us basketball star. brittany griner seen her on the left and the russian arms dealer weak to boot on the right while griner was still on her way to the u. s. boot was all righty. being welcomed by his family in moscow, he had been in the u. s. jail since 2012. solving a 25 year sentence for arms trafficking thing. and i'm you talk ok. it greiner was arrested at moscow airport in february and sentence to 9 years for the possession of cannabis by a russian court. these immigrants published by the russian government shall have been released from the penal colony. she was held in and put on a plane to abu dhabi once inside. she was asked about her well being a riddle.

and with that long ordeal is finally oval. i'm brittany griner is free, but the ordeal continues for another american unlawfully held in russia former marine paul whelan. he's been held for 4 years on espionage charges and i can now speak to his brother david whalen. welcome to the day mister whelan. you were hoping that a deal would be made to free your brother as well. now that that has materialized. how are you and your family? well, we've been working on this for 4 years and we are back to work. we had all hopes. i had hopes that paul would be coming home if there was a deal and now that that has fallen apart for paul, we will just go back to supporting him and, and continue to advocate for his release and help us government and acted. how has your brother reacted to the news? well, he's been quoted in media. he was able to make a call that said he was greatly disappointed. and i think you can understand that

if you have been charged with a crime that you didn't commit and then convicted of that and then sentenced to 16 years in a russian libra colony. i think few people can think of worse situations to be in. when you come from a line that has freedom and rule of law and things like that. so i think he's, he's pretty shattered. ready his health is physical health, i think it's okay at the moment, but i do worry about his mental health because it's hard to continue to go. you're after year waiting for your freedom. if you say your brother is disappointed i'm, he also was quoted saying that he's disappointed that not more was done to secure his release. i would like to get your view on that. the u. s. do everything they could to free. your brother i think it's a process and i think it's evolving. in fact, unfortunately for paul, i think he was perhaps an early case and evolution is going on during his 4 years so far in, in russian captivity. the u. s. government is trying to adapt to nation states

taking hostages rather than things like terrorist groups taking passages. it's a different dynamic, and i think more countries will be facing this as their citizens are, are taken prisoner by russia, by china, by syria, egypt, places like that. iran and, and so i think he's experiencing this sort of this growth and so they have been trying things and i think we have been seeing them try and more things. they may not have found the right calibration. they might not have found the right solution for paul yet, but i think that they are getting better at trying to figure it out. and being more aggressive, perhaps more sort of in pulling together different ideas that they might not have tried even 6 months. even a year ago. yeah. by and said he didn't have a choice as to which american to bring home that for russia, your brother doesn't even seem to have been an option. do you know why? i don't know why. i think what we have heard from the white house in public

statements is that the russians have labeled paul as a spy, doesn't matter whether it's true or not. russian government is a little bit of theater. and, and so they may be waiting for a russian spy to be captured outside of russia, and then use paul to bring that person home. and in that case, they will be keeping him and more w 4 years to come essentially on a as a, a rainy day. the part, let's talk about that learning process. your hinting out there. the white house says it has ideas about what they call new forms of offers to bring your brother home. do you know what those could look like? i don't. i know that in the executive orders, that president biden signed last year last july that he talked about and delegating to staff to start to create strategies, to deal with wrongful detentions, to look at things like sanctions on individuals,

which i'm not sure are actually very effective in individual cases, but other strategies, so that when a detention happens, they have a plan to respond to it rather than wait until, you know, 4 years later to figure that out. there are things that the russian government has asked for in the past, like the diplomatic properties that the obama administration took from them. and there may be other things that have come up since then. and of course, the us government knows a lot more than i do. so i think that there will be creative. and i think that again, they're not going back to square one of the things that they have tried so far didn't work, but they were able to get one american home, which i think is a success for america. and i think that they will figure out how to get the next one home as well. the man exchange for brittany grier was once described by the head of the da is one of the most dangerous men on earth. and his relief is, of course, hugely symbolic for in the kremlin, but it seems like russia is keeping your brother behind. bar is as a sort of bargaining tim for some one, even more important use that may be someone who is being detained in the u. s. on spying charges, and how does that make you feel?

we have known from december 28th 2018 that paul was being held for political purposes. he's always been there as a way to, to extort something from the us government. i'm not sure that a spy is, is necessarily more or less valuable than mr. boot. i think america looks at it citizens as having individual value in ways that the russian government does not look at its own citizenry. and so, you know, i think each government makes different decisions about what they want to get in exchange for somebody and u. s. government may be more aggressive about bringing home a person because they care about that individual where the russians don't really care about anybody. russian president who is said to day that more you as russian prisoner exchanges are possible. if moscow washington find a compromise. does that give you and your family hope? well, i'm, i'm not one to trust or believe mister putin, under any circumstance, but there is always hope. and i think there are always possibilities wanting that the war ukraine has shown us. is that no matter how bad relationships with russia

get get. but there are still other things that can be accomplished other agreements that can be made. and so there's always a possibility that paul could come on. now your brother for now continues behind are, is what do you tell us about a conditions he's being held in its typical russian labor camp. it's 6 days of work a week. it's 2 inches of fish a day. that's your protein. there are no fruits and vegetables, and that's gotten worse. since the sanctions over the ukraine war have hit the russian economy and the russian people, you can imagine that all of those effects of trickle down to the prisoners in the labor camps as well. so it's a pretty grim environment. i think paul has done what he can to try to survive. you have techniques that use each day to, you know, i think help keep his morale up. he has phone calls to our parents, and i think we just have to support him to try and go day by day until he can get home. i mean, the difficulty is how much to ask a person who's been there for 4 years. he's got 12 more years to go. at what point

does a person really just give up when they're not see a resolution. you've been working tirelessly since he was detained, to free him and to bring him home. can you tell us more about the work you and your family do to free your brother? mean you obviously do a lot of media work, but your efforts go away beyond that. don't think yes. i drew the short straw in the media. it was not my choice, i'm a white private person and this is all very uncomfortable to me, but you do what you can for your, for your loved one. i think what has really been exposed to us and to the families of the other 50 americans around the world who are being wrongfully detained. is that the resources your family has make a huge difference. and paul was fortunate in a way that he had 3 siblings who could participate and help with his advocacy. so our sister does the government relations and works with other families behind the scenes. our other brother handles paul's personal finances to make sure that when

he comes home, his credit, it exists. he has money in the bank, those sorts of things, things that he had before he left and then i do the media. and so we sort of split up the rolls to try and make it workable, because no one person could do all of these things and we can't afford to hire the people that might be able to do it for us. and so you do the best you can and you do that as much work as you can. and still most mornings i get up feeling like i'm a failure because paul is not home. but you still, you know, you never know when that day will come, that it will be paul's turn in. some of the work you've done may have had a good impact. i hope that they will come very, very soon. he's very lucky to have you doing all that work on his behalf. they will, we'll and all the best to you and your family. thanks for making time for us today . thanks so much revenue. ah opposition, politician alia yasha believed that his criticism of the war would sound louder and

be more convincing if he stayed on russia. so he did. his criticism was heard and the government scrambled to silence him. in the most high profile case of a russian dissident, been jailed for opposing the invasion of ukraine accord. and moscow has found yashimi guilty of spreading false information about the russian military in ukraine . yashimi had to describe the killings of civilians in boucher by a russian forces. at the massacre, the court decided to find alia violet, he, if she asked him guilty of committing a crime on the criminal code of the russian federation, and imposed a sentence of imprisonment for 8 years and 6 months in a stunted correctional colony. don't worry, any one who thinks preaching is going to roof 8 years. he's been very optimistic. oh, international human rights groups have denounced the decision as

a mockery of justice yashimi called on russian president vladimir putin to admit the war in ukraine was wrong. withdraw russian troops and seek talks. putin, when asked about the verdict, 1st pretended not to know who yeah. she was and then said he wouldn't question the court's decision. for me sure. to so distance interference of the activities of the courts is absolutely unacceptable them, you know, i considerate inappropriate to question the decision of the court room. there are certain statutory rights to protect citizens as they would like to be protected or can you heartily birth if you want it is possible to go to a higher court center. mr. ja sions lawyers know what to do and he goes nerd. kirk, i'm not a one man who has certainly thought it pertinent to question the decision of the court was the also jail russian opposition leader alex st. bombing. this is how he reacted to the trials outcome on twitter. he said, another is shameless and lawless were digged by putin's court will not silence ilya

and should not intimidate the honest people of russia. this is yet another reason why we have to keep fighting, and i have no doubt we will ultimately win. let's look at this case, a little closer and bring in our russian affairs. analysts, constantine and god. he joins us from vilnius in lithuania. constantine, this is the highest profile opposition, figured to be sentenced in russia since the war broke out. tell us more about ilia yoshi and his alleged crime. well, i have the honor of knowing personally, this is quite a long time. e r. o was as a long time, an opposition activists organizer or someone who took very active parts in the i protest in 2011, 2012 of which were probably the biggest. and i put in, protest ever. he also is distinguish where 2 things are. firstly,

he was one of those early russian opposition figures who on the key vocally condemned her pollutants invasion of grain, 2014, and with the late assessor and lated at leda opposition leader from a vice premier boddeson himself. he published their probably the 1st russian kind of white paper on the, on this war and on prudence crimes in you crime. and the 2nd interesting feature that for several years, he was actually a very rare thing, an opposition politician who was in charge of the real thing. he was elected as head of one of a small municipalities that are of which are moscow consists mosque was like 20000000 people. so it has a lot of subdivisions. and he work there for some time actually getting some recognition from uh, from, from the populace. but had to leave it under the ground impression washing made

a conscious decision to stay in russia because he believed that anti war and voices went sound louder if they came from within the country. do you believe that to be true? well, i interviewed him last year for actually for the w for the show valera russian service. and indeed he thought that there is a potential ah, i would say change on the horizon. and at that time though, we of course could not foresee, was good happen in the ukraine. but yes, he was always adamant that he's going to stay and that he's going to confront brewton inside russia. that was his principal position, asked him several times. can he really make a bigger impact now being imprisoned on the charges that he's going to spend years and years in prison for or, or is, is the diaspora that's been driven out of russia out of fear for these kinds of

consequences. really more influential at this point. you know, you can predict and every, every epoch, every historical on time has, has, has its own peculiarities. so i can't say what i want to say is that, of course, full ilia ocean. and for alec seen the violin for another position politician vladimir ricardo missouri was probably soon going to be put on trial. this was very much a principal decision to stay inside the country, whether they will have a big political future or not. i think it's very cynical to debated because frank speaking, you are sacrificing years of your life, if not actually your life, because russian prison is not a sanitarium are for something that's very vague. i think it's a very principal position. i think it is respected by mean people and by the way, i think by a lot of your sions, and the violin is, and cameras as enemies. a bought a. what will be the end result politically can't say, as of now,

i think russian immigration, russia asper, as you called it correctly, is trying to come to terms of with the fact that it is now all sides of russia. it tries to organize, it tries to find new voice into the find thrice to find new ideas that takes always, it always takes time. ah, frankly speaking, i think that in the age of miscommunication, there is a much better chance of rushing opposition. russian desperate, having an impact inside russia because of to colleges that for example, the 1st wave of russian immigration to 20 is those who ran from the communists from the bolsheviks, did not have their dispos. let's look until the crystal ball here for a 2nd. yes, in think extraordinarily, it's in courts and quite to fine. after receiving his sentence, he said, don't worry any one who thinks burton is going to rural for 8 more years. he's been very optimistic at. do you think he might be right?

well i think what i can say, well, 1st of all, ilya is always very cheerful or very focused and he would have never let himself where can his, his, his secret to show some despair or in court because i don't think he has it. i think that that that's who he is. ah, that's what we've seen bots with regard to the crystal ball. won't. i'm not a great gaze of french speaking. ah, but i think that, um, what i can see for sure is that with this a full scale invasion of 24th of february this year put in significantly shortened his staying power in theory. he can stay as president officially until 2036. just imagine, ah, but i do not think it will be that long. how both those regimes will, will help with his resume will go that i can't predict. and no one could really predict anyone who says, i know that is going to be 2 or more. i know is going to be 5 years is actually

either bluffing or a broken. her cousin in there was more news coming out of rush and to day with in quite a usually talkative president. fulton, he commented on remarks, former german chancellor angle american made an interview that the minsk agreements had been an attempt to give the crane time to build up its defences. let's listen to some one he had to say and then get right back to you. just like we had them. yeah, that was to be honest. it was completely unexpected. for me, this is disappointing butcher, frankly, i did not expect to hear this from his former german chancellor because i have always assumed that the leadership of germany is sincere with us. let me see billy's cousin, we say i need to have it turned out. they lied to us too. and the point was only to pump up you crane with weapons and prepare for hostilities. well, we see it's ocean. apparently we got her bearings too late, to be honest. maybe we should have started earlier was not sitting today. it's just like a little bit more to pick your interest rates. i'm a little unsure or russian affairs alice constantine angered is still with us.

constantine fulton says he's surprised and disappointed by what essentially amounts to people calling his bluff. what do you make of this for put in every one of those the sees him. that's the why. ah, i think it's inherits. it's ridiculous, of course are put and understood. and ever understood that the time that the misc agreements were a way of course to save you grain from admitted military debacle in this respect. they of course succeeded. ah, i think that put in, wanted to use the mask agreement says that kind of fresh a point, but he never succeeded because frankly speaking are in the west. people did understand that. first of all, ukraine will not budge are what we find in this, in this quote and this, this, whatever 3040 seconds that put in said is a very typical view that he, i think sincerely spouses, is that ukraine is somehow completely devoid of any kind of political will

political agency if you, which is just a marionette is just the puppets of the western states. who i mean papa, stop the war and then start popping up with weapons. and i actually think that on the subconscious level, he believes that, that, that, that's the case. and of course, from that yellow, everything else flows that i can put in his just defending himself with his just defending russia. the problem is that this propaganda, this type of messaging, has been ongoing for a long, long, long time, are on russian state media. and frankly speaking quite a lot of people are adopted, it accepted it and now live with it. that's why to logic stands for you do not have and will not have will quite a long time. i think that's my personal view. any kind of major anti war. and that had put a movement inside russia because lots of people are, are the berlin, basically to use the word bamboozled by this messaging and others really want to be left alone. so put in can say whatever he want,

there is no one actually because russia is not a democracy. ah, no one to basically take him to account for what he says. so he can say one thing today, another thing, tomorrow. we only have about a minute left, but i don't want to ask you about something that that he sent there. he says, maybe we should have started earlier, didn't i prove that a diplomatic solution in line with immense agreeing was never in his interest? yes, i'm absolutely certain he always wanted to continue this war. he always knew he's going to go forward when and how that's a different matter. of course it's zalinski surrender and says it's according to the means grievance. i'm giving you everything you want to let the middle of the marriage then properties that would have been the war, but there was no chance that any ukraine president would do that. konstantin, i got our russian affairs. anna is joining us to day with very interesting and science fan belly as in lithuania, thank you so much. thank you. and that is our time

for today's, but make sure to stay in touch. you can follow our team on twitter at c, w news, and myself. nicole underscore for like if you're looking for the latest headlines and analysis, you can check out our website that it's d w dot com for now though from all of us on the day. thank you so much for spending part of your day with

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