American basketball star Brittney Griner arrived in the United States on Friday morning after being released from a Russian prison in exchange for an arms dealer nicknamed the “dealer of death.”
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She landed in Texas around 10:40 GMT, according to images from CNN and Fox News.
Brittney Griner, 32, who was arrested in Russia on drug trafficking charges in February, and Viktor Bout, 55, who was serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison, were exchanged at an airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
In a video released by the Russian Security Service released by TASS, a tall figure in a red jacket is walking down an asphalt road, met by a short, smiling man with a gray mustache. Men in suits accompanying them greet each other on either side and then walk in opposite directions.
In the images of the Cold War exchange, the athlete appears with her hair cropped short, without her usual long dreadlocks.
“I was talking to Brittney Griner a few moments ago. She is safe. She’s on an airplane. She’s on her way to the United States,” US President Joe Biden said earlier during a brief speech at the White House.
The basketball player suffered “good morals” despite the “trauma,” added the US President.
In a statement, Brittney Griner’s family said, “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to President Biden and his administration for their tireless work to bring Brittney home.”
In another video, broadcast by pro-Kremlin broadcaster RT, we see Brittney Griner leaving her penal colony bags in hand. A guard asks her in Russian, “Do you think you’ll come back here one day?”
FSB images show her boarding a plane in the snow and then from the cabin reassures her she is “happy”, admitting she didn’t know where she was being taken.
In the United States, the basketball player’s wife, Cherelle Griner, said she was “overwhelmed with emotion.”
“Not a day in the last 10 months that we haven’t had Brittney Griner in our hearts and minds,” said WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who also hinted that the basketball player would end up in Texas.
Saudi Arabia also participated in the exchange process, according to a joint statement with the United Arab Emirates, which said “the mediation” was conducted by the Emirates’ President Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Joe Biden thanked Abu Dhabi, but the White House qualified his role as did Saudi Arabia’s.
“The only countries that participated in the negotiations are the United States and Russia,” said US Executive Branch spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
A senior US official said talks with Moscow remained focused on Brittney Griner’s release and the US had communicated this to Ukraine and other allies.
For its part, the Kremlin stressed on Friday that the negotiations “concerned only exchanges” and did not end the “crisis” between the two countries, whose relations are “still in a deplorable state”.
Another American detained in Russia, former soldier Paul Whelan, was not included in the exchange. “Even if we have not succeeded in getting Paul’s release, we will never give up,” assured Joe Biden.
In a call to CNN from his penal colony in Russia, Paul Whelan said he was “greatly disappointed”. “I don’t understand why I’m still here,” he said.
In a statement, her family said they were “happy” for Ms Griner but “still devastated” knowing Paul Whelan was in a Russian prison.
He was arrested in Russia in December 2018 and sentenced to sixteen years in prison for “espionage,” a sentence he denounced as fabricated from scratch.
Brittney Griner, a 32-year-old African American athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February with a vape and liquid containing cannabis, a product banned in Russia.
She had been employed by the Russian team in Yekaterinburg during the American off-season, a common practice.
She was sentenced to nine years in prison in August and transferred to a penal colony in central Russia after her appeal was rejected in November.
His supporters have consistently denounced a hostage-taking to bargain with Washington in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine.
The name of Viktor Bout had been mentioned in the summer. The famous Russian arms dealer was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States.
According to a Russian public television channel, Viktor Bout landed in Russia on Thursday. “Don’t worry, everything is fine, I love you very much,” he told his mother, Raïssa Bout, when he arrived in his country.
Dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” his extraordinary career served as inspiration for the film Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage.
Americans and Russians accuse each other of having imprisoned their respective nationals for political purposes. Several prisoner exchanges have taken place in the past.