Brittney Griner freed from Russia in prisoner exchange
CBC
Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the United States releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for U.S. President Joe Biden, but carried a heavy price — and left behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia, Paul Whelan, who also holds Canadian citizenship.
Biden tweeted a photo from the White House with Griner's spouse, Cherelle Griner, and then spoke about the development from the White House.
"Pretty soon she'll back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should've been there all along," said Biden.
Biden said Griner's "relieved to finally be heading home," after speaking by phone with her.
Cherelle Griner said she was "overwhelmed with emotions," expressing gratitude to White House and U.S. State Department officials.
WATCH | Biden praises Griner's resilience, pans Russian 'show trial':
Responding to a shouted reporter question, Biden estimated Griner should be back on U.S. soil in about 24 hours.
"There has not been a day over the past 10 months where we all haven't had Brittney Griner on our minds and in our hearts, and that has now turned into a collective wave of joy and relief knowing that she will soon be reunited with her family, the WNBA player community and her friends," said league commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a statement. "BG has shown extraordinary courage and dignity in the face of enormous adversity."
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin hailed the news and the administration efforts, adding in a tweet that "we cannot forget" about the Russians the U.S. considers unjustly imprisoned, listing opposition figures Vladimir Kara-Murza and Alexei Navalny.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also confirmed the swap, saying in a statement carried by Russian news agencies it took place in Abu-Dhabi and that Bout has been flown home.
Griner's arrest in February made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad. Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, infused racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga.
Bout has been imprisoned in the U.S. since a federal court conviction in 2011 on an assortment of charges, including conspiracy to kill American citizens.
The imprisonment of Americans produced a rare diplomatic opening, yielding the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow — a phone call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — in more than five months.