North Central College in the News
North Central College political science professor interviewed on WGN-TV
Jan 27, 2023
William Muck addressed the breaking news of WNBA star Brittney Griner’s prisoner release from Russia
After being imprisoned in Russia for nearly 10 months, WNBA star Brittney Griner’s safe return to the U.S. Griner, who was arrested at a Moscow airport on drug charges and later sentenced to nine years in prison, was released as part of a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia for notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. The swap, which took months to negotiate and has drawn mixed reaction in the U.S. for not also including fellow detainee Paul Whelan, occurred at an airport tarmac in Abu Dhabi.
William Muck, professor, and chair of the political science department at North Central College, interviewed with WGN-TV on this international prisoner exchange.
“Vladimir Putin has a history of taking individuals and holding them as political pawns and Brittney Griner was absolutely number one in that line,” said Muck. “Putin knew holding her was going to be politically difficult for President Biden and the U.S., and I’m guessing that Putin will want to continue holding onto some of these high-profile individuals so he can try and extract more things in the future.”
