Status: 08.12.2022 3:10 p.m
US basketball player Griner, imprisoned in Russia, is free: She was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor But. The athlete was in a prison camp for drug possession.
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 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.
The negotiations had been going on for months. The United States had accused Russia of politically motivated trials against Griner and had been trying to get the athlete released for months. Most recently, she was transferred to a women’s prison 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.
Whelan remains in custody
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. Notorious as the “dealer of death,” the Russian was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.
Russia and the US have exchanged prisoners in the past, despite tensions over Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Another American in Russian custody, Paul Whelan, is still awaiting release.