American basketball player Brittney Griner arrived back in the country on Friday morning. In return for an arms dealer known as the "Merchant of Death," she was released from a Russian prison.
As Griner's plane touched down in San Antonio, Texas, an AFP reporter spotted her going across the tarmac. Griner, 32, had been arrested in Russia in February on drug-related allegations.
She would be transported to a nearby military hospital for assessment, according to US media.
Viktor Bout, a Russian man serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison, and Griner were switched for one another on Thursday in Abu Dhabi. Bout is a Russian national who is 55 years old.
Russian official media aired a scene in which Bout and Griner collided on the airport's tarmac while making their way to separate planes. Bout was laughing and appeared at ease.
Vice President Joe Biden claimed she was in "excellent spirits" despite going through "needless pain" in a statement issued on Thursday.
The arrest of Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, WNBA champion, and LGBTQ trailblazer, took place at a Moscow airport concurrently with rising tensions over Ukraine.
After being found guilty of carrying vape cartridges containing a very little cannabis oil, she was given a nine-year sentence in August.
Bout was detained in Thailand in 2008 as part of a US sting operation. He was extradited to the US and sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2012. Bout is accused of providing weapons to rebels in some of the world's worst wars.
He landed in the nation on Thursday, according to the official Russian television. "Don't worry, everything will be fine," he promised his mother Raisa, adding, "I love you very much."
Griner was released on Thursday, but Paul Whelan, a former US Marine detained in Russia since 2018 on suspicion of spying, was not included in the deal that brought him to freedom. Nevertheless, his family and friends rejoiced at Griner's release.
She admitted to being quite disappointed in a CNN interview.
“I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here,” Whelan told CNN from a Russian prison camp.
With the words, “we will never give up,” Biden vowed to keep fighting for Whelan’s release.
“Sadly, for illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” he stated.
On Griner’s release, Biden remarked, “This is a day we’ve worked toward for a long time. It took painstaking and intense negotiations.”
Biden announced Griner’s release on Thursday, and he was joined by her wife, Cherelle Griner, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
‘I’m just standing here, overwhelmed with emotions,’ Cherelle Griner said.
“Today, my family is whole, but as you all know, there are so many other families who are not whole.”
The Griner family expressed gratitude to President Biden and his administration, adding that they “pray for Paul and the fast and safe return of all wrongfully-detained Americans.”
Cathy Engelbert, the commissioner of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), where Brittney Griner has been a star for the Phoenix Mercury for a decade, said the league felt a “collective wave of joy and relief” at the news.
Griner’s release was the result of “mediation efforts” by the leaders of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, according to a joint statement issued by the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Biden praised the UAE for its role in this.
However, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre of the White House stated that “no mediation was involved” and that “the only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States and Russia.”
Griner played for a Russian professional club when she was arrested, as many WNBA players did during the off-season.
She admitted responsibility but said she had no intention of breaking the law or using illegal narcotics in Russia.
Griner stated that a doctor in the United States had given her authorization to use medical cannabis to treat the agony of her numerous wounds.
Russian law prohibits the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
The Russian foreign ministry claimed that talks with Washington had gone on for “a long time” to obtain Bout’s release. The United States had initially “refused dialogue” on including him in any swap.
“Nevertheless, the Russian Federation continued to work to rescue our compatriot actively,” it said.
Bout’s arms trafficking has been the topic of multiple books and television series, as well as the 2005 film “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage.
According to TASS, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, sent a video message to Bout in which he acknowledged that the arms trader had been subjected to “powerful physical and moral pressure” behind bars.
When asked about the possibility of releasing Bout, a senior US defence official said, “there is a concern that he would return to doing the same kind of work that he’s done in the past.”
As of this past Friday, Moscow maintained that relations with Washington were a “crisis.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Izvestia newspaper, “it is probably wrong to draw any hypothetical conclusions that this could be a step towards overcoming the crisis that we currently have in bilateral relations.”
The situation of ties “continues to remain in a sad state.”