Negotiations for the exchange had been going on for months.
(Photo: AP)
Moscow, Washington US basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia, has been released in a prisoner swap. It was exchanged for the Russian arms dealer Viktor But (also Bout), who was arrested in the United States, at Abu Dhabi airport, as the Russian Foreign Ministry announced in Moscow on Thursday.
The negotiations had been going on for months. Russia and the US have exchanged prisoners in the past, despite tensions over Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden recognized Griner as a great American. “She represents the best of America — across the board,” Biden said in a White House address on Thursday. The 32-year-old is on her way back to the United States after completing a prisoner swap with Moscow after being “unjustly” held in Russia for months. “Welcome home, Brittney,” Biden said.
On Thursday, Biden thanked the US diplomats who negotiated the prisoner exchange and the United Arab Emirates, through which Griner was able to travel. The athlete is sitting on an airplane and is in a good mood, according to the US President. “The fact remains that she lost months of her life, experiencing unnecessary trauma. She deserves space, privacy and time with loved ones to recover and heal from her time unjustly imprisoned.” Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, thanked Biden and the entire government for their efforts.
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In August, a Russian court sentenced Griner to nine years in a camp for drug possession in a trial heavily criticized by the United States. Most recently, she was transferred to a women’s prison in the Russian republic of Mordovia in the greater Volga region. From the beginning there was hope that the 32-year-old could be released if prisoners were exchanged.
According to the judiciary, the athlete had so-called vape cartridges and hashish oil with her during a baggage check at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. It is said to have been 0.5 grams. This was ruled as illegal drug possession and attempted smuggling. The court saw no mitigating circumstances. Griner had pleaded guilty. Right from the start, Washington had accused Moscow of a politically motivated trial – above all because of the high sentence.
The US basketball player is brought to the USA.
(Photo: AP)
Griner has played for the top Russian club UMMC Yekaterinburg in the Urals since 2015 and won the Euroleague four times with them. In the American women’s professional league WNBA she won the championship with the Phoenix Mercury in 2014, with the US national team she won two gold medals at the world championships in addition to two Olympic victories.
Viktor Buot, the “dealer of death”
In return, Russia received the former Soviet officer Viktor But. It was said in Moscow that he was on his way to Russia on a plane. He is said to have illegally equipped criminal regimes and rebels in numerous countries with weapons. The Russian, notorious as the “Dealer of Death”, was imprisoned as an arms dealer in the USA.
At the same time, US President Biden emphasized that the United States continued to seek the release of American Paul Wheelan. He was arrested in Russia in 2018 and sentenced to a long prison term for alleged espionage. “Unfortunately, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s case for totally illegitimate reasons,” the President said.
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