On Russian television channels, the exchange of prisoners between Russia and the United States turned into the exchange of roles between Viktor Bout and Brittney Griner.
On the one hand, Viktor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States, has been known since the 1990s for having supplied the belligerents of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet.
He is presented in Russia as the innocent and heroic victim of an American plot.
On the other, Brittney Griner, American basketball star, was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony in Russia for having transported a small quantity of hashish oil that her lawyers said was therapeutic.
She is presented as guilty.
And, above all, Russian propaganda denigrates the fact that she is black and lesbian.