Women’s basketball player Brittney Griner was released from Russian custody during a one-for-one prisoner swap on Thursday after an exchange agreement was negotiated with Russian officials last week, U.S. officials announced.
The prisoner exchange took place on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates, CBS News reported, as U.S. officials released international arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Griner. The basketball player’s release comes months after Griner was detained in a Russian airport in February on drug charges after security officials discovered she was carrying cannabis oil cartridges in her luggage.
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“Moments ago, I spoke to Brittney Griner,” President Joe Biden said on Twitter. “She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home.”
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that “in this last week,” Biden decided to move forward with the one-for-one swap. Griner was moved from the penal colony to Moscow and then flown to the UAE, whereas Bout’s conditional clemency was not completed until Thursday upon confirmation from U.S. officials in the UAE that Griner was there as well.
Griner’s wife, Cherelle, had been invited to the White House for a meeting with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, but upon her arrival, she was directed to the Oval Office, which broke the news to her. Vice President Kamala Harris, Sullivan, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were there as well.
Griner was arrested last February after bringing vape cartridges containing minimal amounts of cannabis. She pleaded guilty to the charges, admitting during her trial that she uses it medicinally and unintentionally brought it in her luggage. Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison, one year short of the maximum sentence, in August.
“As we have urged for some time, given the fifteen long years that Viktor Bout has been in custody since the United States government targeted him in 2006, his exchange for Brittney Griner, who has only been in custody for a few months, is fair,” Steve Zissou, Bout’s lawyer, told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “Like Brittney Griner, Viktor Bout will soon be reunited with his family. Our thanks to the Russian foreign ministry and President Putin, who never gave up on him during the fifteen years of his wrongful incarceration, just as President Biden and the U.S. State Department never gave up on Ms. Griner. Hopefully, this is just the first of many reasonable agreements between the U.S and Russia that will lead to better relations and a safer world.”
It’s unclear what changed in the negotiations recently, even as U.S. officials reiterated that the Kremlin had not been engaging in good faith negotiations. These comments from officials came after the State Department revealed in July that it had offered a “substantial” proposal to get Griner and Paul Whelan, another American whom the Biden administration considers wrongfully detained.
Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” had been in a U.S. prison since 2012 following a sting operation overseas. His willingness to sell arms to alleged human rights abusers in a multitude of African nations provided him with that nickname.
Whelan, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of espionage charges he vehemently denied, was not included in Thursday’s swap.
“We celebrate the long overdue return of Brittney Griner and her safe return home to her wife, family, teammates, and the WNBPA, who fought for her relentlessly. While we celebrate Brittney’s homecoming, our hearts break for the Whelan family. Paul Whelan has been let down and left behind at least three times by 2 Presidents. He deserves better from his government, and our Campaign implores President Biden to urgently secure Paul’s immediate return using all tools available,” Jonathan Franks, the spokesperson for the Bring Our Families Home Campaign, said in a statement.
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This is the second high-profile prisoner exchange the United States and Russia have agreed to this year. In the spring, the two parties agreed to swap Trevor Reed, a former Marine whom the administration also considered wrongfully detained, for Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko.
