The Biden administration secured the release of Brittney Griner, a Women’s National Basketball Association player, from a Russian prison on December 8. She was arrested at a Moscow airport in February after her vape canisters were found to contain cannabis oil, which is illegal in Russia. She has been detained in Russia for the last 10 months. Her release was secured through a one-for-one prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed the Merchant of Death.

Griner’s case has been relatively high profile. Not only is she a professional athlete, but she is also a black lesbian. The campaign for her release has been very public and emphatic. Something Russia probably considered when she was arrested.

The amount of cannabis Griner possessed would likely have warranted a maximum of 15 days detention and a fine of about $80. But instead of being charged with possession, she was charged for smuggling illegal substances. She pled guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Griner did commit a crime. But she was also a windfall for Russia. United States Cannabis Council Steven Hawkins said Russia seemed to be using the situation “as a pretext for holding a prominent American as leverage. Brittney Griner must not be used as a pawn by Russia.”

But that is exactly what Russia has successfully done. Many Americans are happy that Griner, a prominent black LGBTQ woman, is home. But many Russians are happy too.

After over a decade, Russia has secured the release of a dangerous man who served less than half of his 25-year sentence.

Who Is Viktor Bout?

In 2005, Nicholas Cage starred in a movie titled Lord of War. In it, he plays a homicidal, Ukrainian arms dealer who supplies weapons to brutal authoritarian regimes for both the profit and the thrill. Toward the end of the movie, Cage’s character is caught and jailed. However, he predicts that the U.S. government will release him with no charges. That’s exactly what happens, and the movie ends.

The movie and character were based on Viktor Bout. And although Bout spent 11 more years in jail than his fictional counterpart, life has ultimately caught up to and imitated art.

A former member of the Soviet military, Bout went through its intelligence structures before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. As military supplies from the former Soviet states leaked onto the black market, Bout had his eureka moment. Weapons depots were full of weapons that weren’t being used, guarded by guards who weren’t being paid. He decided to exploit both. Using his networks in the Russian intelligence services, he created a global weapons shipping empire.

There were many arms dealers around, but none of them were like Bout. Not only could he deliver AK-47s and other small munitions, he could also supply heavy duty machinery such as antitank missiles and rocket-propelled grenades. He sold such weapons to al Qaeda, the Taliban and opposing forces in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.

In 2008, he was captured while trying to sell weapons to undercover agents disguised as anti-American terrorists . Two years later, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail. But even then, he boldly declared, “This is not the end.” Time has proved him right.

Priorities

Russia has vociferously campaigned for Bout’s release for years. He was probably the most high-profile and most dangerous Russian in U.S. custody. Despite, or perhaps because of everything he did, the Russian campaign to bring him home was emphatic: “We don’t abandon our own.”

Some analysts believe the world has changed too much for someone like Bout to be as dangerous as he was when he was caught. That might be true. But it is worth noting how important his release was to Russia. This is the same country that has supported and funded pro-Russian separatist rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk for years. That is the exact kind of situation in which Bout would flourish. “As Vladimir Putin desperately tries to plug gaps in his depleted military in Ukraine, Viktor Bout may be just what he needs,” wrote the Telegraph.

“Mr. Putin has been forced to seek artillery shells from North Korea, and attack drones from Iran,” it wrote. “But now Bout, with his global network of contacts, could provide a further option.”

But today’s release teaches us as much about Russia’s priorities as it does about America’s. Like Bout’s, the campaign to bring Brittney Griner home was emphatic because of everything she is—a black, female lgbtq athlete who protested against the national anthem.

Her release is a victory for racially conscious, sexually “liberated,” feminist America.

That certainly wouldn’t be the case for ex-marine Paul Whelan, another American citizen held under seemingly flimsy charges by the antagonistic Russian government. But unlike Griner, he is only a white, heterosexual man.

There aren’t really any Americans saying they are happy Whelan is still imprisoned in Russia. Even Joe Biden said the Griner-Bout swap wasn’t simply choosing one American over another. “We haven’t forgotten about Paul Whelan,” he told reporters.

But the facts say something different.

According to Douglas Farah who wrote the book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible, “Every time a U.S. person has been arrested, [Russia’s] always raised the possibility of an exchange for Viktor.” The Biden administration had two years to negotiate a swap for Whelan. It didn’t. Presumably, it didn’t think it was a fair trade.

But it only took 10 months for them to negotiate a trade for Griner. A senior White House official said that for Griner, Biden “personally tracked” the negotiations. Meanwhile, Whelan is stilled imprisoned in a former Russian gulag.

The most radically leftist administration in American history prioritized the release of Brittney Griner, not despite what she represents, but rather because of it. That shouldn’t surprise anybody. It’s the outcome its track record would indicate. That’s probably why Russia targeted and charged Griner the way it did. Whelan hadn’t proved valuable enough to earn a swap for Bout. But they knew Griner was as valuable to such a virtue-signaling government as Bout was to them.

Cue the White House photo-op with Brittney Griner’s “wife.”

A New Era

What a contrast between Russia and the United States. Neither has the right priorities. Russia is a warmongering, antagonistic country. The United States today is weak, woke and willing to capitulate to nations like Russia. These are conditions the Bible has prophesied for thousands of years.

Jesus Christ Himself prophesied these conditions when He spoke of “the times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24).

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explained in his article “What Are the Times of the Gentiles?” that in the Bible, the Gentiles are presented in contrast to the Israelites. While Israel in end-time prophecy refers mainly to the United States and Britain, “Gentile” refers to the non-Israelite peoples—including Russia. Prophecy shows that as the modern Israelite nations decline, Gentile nations will become the dominant world powers.

What else embodies this precipitous decline, this sharp contrast as the trade of a pot-smoking, lesbian, basketball player for a notorious, anti-American, terrorist arms dealer?

America’s morality is broken. The pride in its power is broken (Leviticus 28:26). Russia is brutal, violent and on the rise. The times of the Gentiles are nearly upon us. And they will affect much more than just Russia and the United States. They will affect the entire world.