Paul Whelan's sister mentioned her household has been disturbed by 'partisanship' pitting Brittney Griner towards her brother

• Brittney Griner returned dwelling from Russian detainment in a December prisoner change.
• Fellow wrongfully detained American Paul Whelan famously didn’t return dwelling as a part of the deal.
• Elizabeth Whelan, Paul’s sister, slammed those that “pit us and the Griners towards one another.”

Not everybody was glad to see Brittney Griner return from Russia.

The WNBA famous person got here dwelling from 10 months detained overseas due to a December prisoner change between the Biden administration and the Kremlin. Paul Whelan, a fellow American who has been wrongfully detained in Russia since 2018, was not freed within the deal regardless of the US authorities’s makes an attempt to barter for the simultaneous launch of each US residents.

Whereas President Joe Biden was adamant that “this was not a alternative of which American to deliver dwelling,” as he mentioned upon saying Griner’s homecoming to the general public, numerous naysayers criticized the deal as one which prioritized the well-known basketball participant over a Marine veteran.

Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, informed Insider that the “partisanship that got here alongside was actually disturbing to our household.” 

“There’s been a number of partisan stuff on Twitter and within the media about how Biden made a option to deliver Brittney dwelling and never Paul,” Whelan mentioned. “That was consciously arrange by the Russians to trigger division. And it continues to trigger division. We have to maintain the deal with the people who find themselves truly doing the wrongdoing, and that is the Kremlin and Putin.”

Within the years since Paul was first arrested in Russia, the Whelan household has come to consider that Putin kind of holds US residents for ransom with a view to “sow as a lot chaos as doable” in the US, Whelan mentioned.

So when Griner was arrested in February 2022 and made right into a political pawn by Russia, Elizabeth Whelan and her household realized that critics had been taking part in into Putin’s hand by “making an attempt to pit us and the Griners towards one another” she mentioned.

The Whelans collectively resolved to assist any motion that resulted in a wrongful detainee returning to the US — even when it wasn’t Paul. The Griners did the identical, cementing a promise that the households would not be divided by Twitter trolls or pundits selling partisan agendas.

“I’ve all the time felt that households ought to attempt to assist one another, as a result of we’re the one individuals who actually perceive what the opposite households are going via,” Whelan mentioned.

As fall gave strategy to winter and information of a possible deal to deliver Griner dwelling grew louder, Whelan understood {that a} potential commerce that included her brother along with the two-time Olympic gold medalist was unrealistic. As Biden defined in a December press convention, the Kremlin considered “Paul’s case in another way than Brittney’s” and positioned a better premium on his return.

The president may both deliver Griner dwelling alone, or depart each People abroad.

Despite the fact that Griner has ardently advocated for People, together with Whelan, who stay wrongfully detained abroad, skeptics have characterised her return as a betrayal to these exact same individuals she goals to assist.

“There are people who’re going to thrill in making Brittney a partisan challenge for years to come back, and Paul the identical means,” Whelan mentioned. “Individuals who have by no means been via these detentions are prepared to say terrible issues about individuals who have principally been prisoners of conflict. It is a horrible apply.”