Why go public with a Brittney Griner deal? That's a dangerous chess move

The Russians didn’t invent chess, but they all play it. Their nation has produced with industrial consistemany of the grandmasters of the game – Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Boris Spassky, to name a few.

Any rival nation matching wits with the Russians should know they have all trained their minds playing the national game to think many moves ahead and to anticipate all of yours.

On Wednesday, we learned that the United States entered a chess match with the Russians in June for the release of Russian-held American hostages Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

Also Wednesday, the Americans made a dangerous move in this high-stakes contest when they publicly revealed the outline of a proposed prisoner exchange.

Why make Brittney Griner's deal public now?

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the United States had “put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago.”

Blinken said the White House and Kremlin have “communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal,” according to The New York Times. He said he plans to soon talk by phone with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, on the matter.

CNN reported that three anonymous sources, including a senior U.S. “administration official,” have told the cable news network that after “months of internal debate” the Biden administration has offered to exchange convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout for the Phoenix Mercury star, Griner, and the former Marine, Whelan.

The sources told CNN that the Justice Department had originally opposed any prisoner exchange for fear that it would only encourage rogue actors to take American prisoners in pursuit of ransom from the Americans.

Is it enough? Will Griner's supporters be enough to bring her home?

“Justice officials eventually accepted that a Bout trade has the support of top officials at the State Department and White House, including Biden himself,” CNN reported.

Even with new information today, it’s hard to know what the administration’s motives may be for publicizing the deal. Perhaps they see some leverage not obvious to the casual observer.

From where I stand, this reeks of desperation and weakness.

Did the White House forget who it's dealing with?

The Russians have "not been responsive" to the offer, the administration official told CNN.

So the Americans are whining that the Russians are not acting in good faith.

Do we need to remind you of who you’re dealing with?

Last Friday, the United Nations brokered a deal between Turkey and Russia to lift the Russian blockade that was stopping shipments of Ukrainian grain from getting to Africa and the Middle East. The blockade was provoking global hunger, the Washington Post reported.

Less than 24 hours later, the Russian military fired missiles at the Black Sea port at Odessa, where millions of tons of that grain are shipped out. The deal was all but shredded.

The Russians have left a trail of dead civilians in Ukrainian cities that they have obliterated. They are executing the innocents. And the United States is whining because the Russian aren’t responsive to their prisoner offer?

Russians could make us choose between the 2

Now that it’s out in the open, one doesn’t have to think very hard about how the Russians could use these negotiations to torment Joe Biden, the leader of Western nations arming and funding Ukrainian resistance to the Russian war machine.

There has been much speculation in the national press that the Russians might accept a 1-to-1 prisoner exchange for Griner, but may not be open to adding a second, such as Paul Whelan, in the deal.

If the Russians publicize such terms the way the Americans did on Wednesday, they could set up a kind of Sophie’s Choice for an American president to decide between the Black American basketball player or the white former Marine.

Who do we want for Viktor Bout? Choose one.

Given the social revolution the United States has been going through since the summer of 2020, one could easily imagine the chaos that could provoke.

Given that the Russians have very recently been stoking racial division in the United States, it’s not hard to imagine what their next chess move might be.

I hope I’m wrong. I hope that all of this news on Wednesday is merely prelude to some pre-determined announcement of a deal later in the week, that Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan will soon be coming home.

But I fear this may be one more story that feeds the growing realization that we are no longer a serious people.

Phil Boas is an editorial columnist for The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Brittney Griner prisoner exchange takes another dangerous turn