Arms dealer swap: Russia releases basketball star Griner

For months, the United States had been trying to get her released. The US basketball player Griner has now been released from Russian custody. In exchange for US-imprisoned arms dealer But – aka “dealer of death”.

US basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia, has been released in a prisoner swap. She was exchanged at Abu Dhabi airport for Russian arms dealer Viktor But, who was imprisoned in the United States, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Biden: “She’s on her way home”

Griner is already on a plane and “on his way home,” US President Joe Biden said on Twitter. “I just spoke to Brittney Griner. She’s safe,” he wrote. Biden also published two photos. On one he is said to be on the phone with Griner, on the other he is holding her wife Cherelle Griner in his arms.

Negotiations have been going on for months. The United States accused Russia of politically motivated trials against Griner. Most recently, Griner was transferred to a women’s prison camp in the Russian republic of Mordovia in the greater Volga region.

Nine years for drug possession

Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia in August for drug possession. She is said to have had vape cartridges and hash oil with her when her luggage was checked at Sheremetyevo Airport in February. It is said to have been 0.5 grams of marijuana – this is forbidden in Russia. The court saw no mitigating circumstances. Griner had pleaded guilty.

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.

But’s crimes inspired Hollywood

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 in Thailand in 2008 and was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison after his extradition in 2012.

The Justice Department is said to have once described But as one of the most active arms dealers in the world. After military service in Angola and Mozambique, he rose to become a successful businessman in the 1990s. His company meanwhile owned a fleet of around 50 aircraft. Officially, these planes transported flowers and household goods around the world. Unofficially there were also weapons in the hold.

Bout is said to have transported these to Afghanistan, Liberia or Togo. Among other things, also to organizations that have been classified as terrorist by the European Union and the USA, such as Al Qaeda or the Taliban. His actions later inspired a Hollywood film.

Whelan remains in custody

Another American, Paul Whelan, has to wait for his release. Whelan has been in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the US government say have no basis.

Russia and the US have exchanged prisoners in the past, despite tensions over Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.