After much delegation, WNBA player Brittney Griner is finally being released from imprisonment in Russia. The development comes as the result of an agreement between Russia and the United States to do a high-stake prisoner swap that would involve trading Griner for Viktor Bout, a Russian native known as the “Merchant of Death” imprisoned in the U.S. for arms dealing.
Convicted in 2011, Bout served 11 years of a 25-year sentence after conspiring to provide arms that would kill Americans. He is being released to the administration of Russia President Vladimir V. Putin during a tumultuous time when Russia is in war with Ukraine. The prisoner swap occurred in Abu Dhabi, the capital of U.A.E.
President Joe Biden held a press conference from the White House on Thursday (Dec. 8) with Vice President Kamala Harris and Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, in tow.
“I spoke with Brittney Griner — she’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home,” President Biden said. “Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along.”
Griner, a player of the team Phoenix Mercury, was held captive in Russia for nearly 10 months on drug smuggling charges when Russian authorities discovered vaping paraphernalia in her luggage as she was going through customs in February 2022. At the conference, Biden acknowledged that the 32-year-old basketball star was wrongfully detained and that Russia has not been less lenient with Paul Whelan, another American unjustly detained in Russia. Whelan has been serving a 16-year prison sentence on suspicion of spying.
“Today, I’m just standing here overwhelmed with emotions, but the most important emotion I have right now is sincere gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration,” Cherelle Griner said at the press conference.
