Moscow says Griner was traded for Viktor Bout, a Russian former arms vendor convicted and jailed in the US.
Basketball star Brittney Griner has been free of a Russian jail and is on her means dwelling to the US after a prisoner swap with convicted arms vendor Viktor Bout, who was serving a 25-year jail time period within the US.
Information of the discharge spurred messages of reduction from US officers, supporters and Griner’s family members who had been campaigning for her return for months.
The change befell at Abu Dhabi airport within the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, Russian information companies reported.
US President Joe Biden stated Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was “on her means dwelling”.
“She is secure. She is on a airplane. She is on her means dwelling,” Biden wrote in a Tweet that featured an image of him and Griner’s spouse, Cherelle Griner.
The Russian International Ministry confirmed the swap, saying in an announcement that Bout had been flown dwelling. Russian media confirmed Griner strolling off a Russian airplane in Abu Dhabi the place she was greeted by a US official. Two Russians greeted Bout, as soon as nicknamed the “Service provider of Loss of life”, with a hug.
Later, Russian TV confirmed Bout strolling off the airplane on a snow-covered tarmac in Moscow, his mom and spouse hugging him and giving him flowers.
‘Incomparable athlete’
Griner, 32, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and star of the Phoenix Mercury on the Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation (WNBA), was arrested on February 17 at a Moscow airport when cartridges containing hashish oil, which is banned in Russia, have been present in her baggage.
Her arrest got here days earlier than Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 as ties between Washington and Moscow got here underneath additional pressure. The Biden administration, early on, stated she had been “wrongfully detained”.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated the prisoner change deal shouldn't be seen as a step in direction of enhancing bilateral relations between Russian and the US.
Peskov stated ties between the 2 international locations remained in a “sorry state”, in response to the TASS information company.
All through her time in Russian custody, Griner’s kin, teammates and supporters referred to as on the US authorities to place its full weight behind the case to safe her launch.
She was sentenced on August 4 to 9 years in jail on expenses of possessing and smuggling medication. She had pleaded responsible however stated she had made an “sincere mistake” and had not meant to interrupt the regulation.
Her legal professionals described the sentence as extreme, stressing that it doesn't “correspond to the gravity of the crime”.
Final month, Griner was taken to a penal colony within the Russian area of Mordovia to serve her sentence.
In a short tackle on the White Home on Thursday, Biden stated the “previous few months have been hell for Brittney” however that she was in good spirits. He praised the basketball star as an “incomparable athlete”.
“This can be a day we’ve labored towards for a very long time. We by no means stopped pushing for her launch. It took painstaking and intense negotiations,” the US president stated.
Dozens of US politicians, athletes and commentators expressed pleasure and gratitude for Griner’s launch on Thursday.
“BG is FREE!!! 294 days and he or she is coming dwelling!!!” Seattle Storm star Breanna Stewart wrote on Twitter.
🙌🏽 Unimaginable information. That is lengthy overdue justice for Brittney Griner.
I'm glad she is free and can quickly be reunited together with her household, diplomacy works! https://t.co/Z6XsbXFshI
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) December 8, 2022
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert hailed what she referred to as Griner’s “extraordinary braveness and dignity within the face of huge adversity”.
“There has not been a day over the previous ten months the place all of us haven’t had Brittney Griner on our minds and in our hearts and that has now became a collective wave of pleasure and reduction realizing that she is going to quickly be reunited together with her household, the WNBA participant neighborhood, and her buddies,” Engelbert stated in an announcement.
Paul Whelan case
The prisoner swap didn't embrace Paul Whelan, a US marine veteran who was sentenced to 16 years in jail in 2020 on espionage expenses that Washington maintains are false.
On Thursday, Biden promised to proceed to push for Whelan’s launch. “Whereas now we have not but succeeded in securing Paul’s launch, we aren't giving up. We'll by no means quit,” Biden stated. “We stay in shut contact with Paul’s household – the Whelan household – and my ideas and prayers are with them in the present day.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken additionally talked about Whelan as he welcomed Griner’s liberating.
“Whereas we have fun Brittney’s launch, Paul Whelan and his household proceed to endure needlessly,” Blinken stated in an announcement. “Regardless of our ceaseless efforts, the Russian Authorities has not but been prepared to carry a protracted overdue finish to his wrongful detention.”
A US official stated Griner’s launch from Russia got here collectively within the final 48 hours, including that the Biden administration provided Moscow a number of choices to safe Whelan’s launch.
“It was bringing Brittney Griner dwelling proper now or bringing no American dwelling proper now,” the official advised reporters on the situation of anonymity in a phone briefing.
The official stated the talks to safe Griner’s launch didn't tackle broader points with Russia.
A number of US media shops reported that Griner can be flown to San Antonio, Texas, the place she is going to endure a routine medical analysis on arrival.
‘Service provider of dying’
The UAE and Saudi Arabia stated in a joint assertion on Thursday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed led the negotiations to safe the prisoner swap deal.
However in a while Thursday, White Home spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre burdened that the prisoner swap deal was reached in talks between Washington and Moscow alone.
“The one international locations that negotiated this deal have been the US and Russia, and there was no mediation concerned,” she stated.
“We're grateful for the UAE… for facilitating using their territory for the change to happen. We're additionally grateful to different international locations, together with Saudi Arabia, that raised the difficulty of our wrongfully detained People with the Russian authorities.”
Bout, a 55-year-old former Soviet military lieutenant colonel, was accused of arming insurgent teams in a number of the world’s bloodiest conflicts.
Moscow stated it had been negotiating with Washington to safe Bout’s launch “for a very long time” and that originally the US had “refused dialogue” on together with him in any swap.
“However, the Russian Federation continued to actively work to rescue our compatriot. The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland,” the defence ministry stated.
As soon as described by the US Justice Division as one of many world’s most prolific arms sellers, Bout was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and extradited to the US two years later.
Bout’s life was the inspiration for the 2005 movie Lord of Warfare starring Nicolas Cage.
Some US Republicans criticised the swap deal on Thursday, citing Bout’s notoriety and the actual fact Whelan stays jailed in Russia.
If @POTUS goes to launch a man convicted of offering assist to a terrorist group & conspiring to kill Americans, he ought to have at the least gotten BOTH Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan in return.
A U.S. Marine is left behind in one other dangerous deal made by Biden.
— Workplace of Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (@RepMalliotakis) December 8, 2022
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