Russia frees jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner swap for the notorious arms dealer on Thursday Victor fightwho was held in a US prison for 12 years.
Joe Biden, who has prioritized Griner’s release after she spent nearly 10 months in prison on drug charges, said in a White House address that he spoke to Griner and found her “in good spirits.”
“She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home after months of being unfairly detained Russiawho were being held in unbearable circumstances,” he said. “Brittney will soon be back in the arms of loved ones and she should have been there all along.”
But the president expressed regret that the deal did not include Paul Whelan, a Michigan security executive who has been jailed since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the US government believe are unfounded.
Biden said: “Unfortunately, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s for totally illegitimate reasons. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”
Standing alongside Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Griner’s wife Cherelle said she was “overwhelmed with emotion.”
“The most important feeling I have right now is just genuine gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration. He just mentioned that this work isn’t easy and it wasn’t,” she said.
“Today my family is whole, but as you all know there are so many other families that are not whole. [Brittney] is not here to say so, but I will be happy to speak on her behalf and say that BG and I will remain committed to bringing every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today.
The second such exchange in eight months, following the release of Trevor Reed in April, ensured the release of the most prominent American imprisoned abroad.
Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose incarceration for drug offenses has drawn unprecedented attention to the wrongfully incarcerated population. She was sentenced in August and sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony.
Biden’s approval to release Bout, once dubbed the “dealer of death,” underscored the pressure his administration was facing to bring Griner home, especially after their criminal case was solved and they were transferred to a penal colony.
An anonymous US official told CNN that leaving Whelan out of the deal was “a difficult decision, but it was a decision to have Brittney or nothing.”
Russia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to state media that Griner was exchanged for Bout in a secret swap at an Abu Dhabi airport. The ministry did not provide any further details. Griner’s lawyers in Russia did not respond when asked for comment.
A lawyer for Whelan said he was not approached. But, he added, these swaps are usually worked out behind the scenes by intelligence agencies.
“Typically, lawyers are not approached with these questions,” he told the Guardian. “All these questions are decided by the security services in secret, and we and the prisoners only find out at the end.”
In a statement, Whelan’s family said they welcomed the Griner swap but were “devastated.” Whelan was not freed.
Russian and US officials had expressed cautious optimism after months of negotiations, with Biden saying he was hopeful in November. A senior Russian official said last week a deal was possible before the end of the year. Still, the fact that the deal was a one-for-one swap came as a surprise, given that US officials have been expressing their determination to bring Griner and Whelan home for months.
Bout is a former Soviet lieutenant colonel, once referred to by the US Department of Justice one of the most prolific arms dealers in the world. He was serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that US officials said were intended to be used against Americans.
But the imprisonment of one of the biggest players in WNBA Story contributed to a whirlpool of unprecedented public attention for a single inmate case.
Griner was arrested in February. Her status as an openly gay black woman imprisoned in a country where authorities were hostile to the LBGTQ+ community injected racial, gender, and social dynamics into her legal history.
Her case became a major turning point in US-Russia diplomacy at a time of deteriorating relations sparked by Moscow’s war in Ukraine, and led to the highest known contact between Washington and Moscow — a phone call between Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov – in more than five months.
Blinken publicly revealed in July that the US had made a “substantive proposal” for Griner and Whelan. People familiar with it said the US offered Bout. Such a public overture drew rebuke from the Russians and risked weakening the US hand. But the announcement was meant to communicate that Biden was doing what he could and pressuring the Russians.
The release followed months of negotiations involving Bill Richardson, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, and his chief deputy, Mickey Bergman.
Griner was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport when officers said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty in July but was still on trial. She told the court she had no criminal intent and that the presence of the canisters in her luggage was due to hasty packing.
Before Griner was convicted on Aug. 4 and received a sentence her attorneys said was unreasonable for the offense, Griner apologized “for the mistake I made and the embarrassment I caused.” She added, “I hope your judgment doesn’t end my life.”
In May, the US State Department described them as unlawfully detained. A separate trade, Navy veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, raised hopes for more exchanges.
Whelan has been held since December 2018. The United States also classified him as wrongly imprisoned. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
His brother David Whelan said: “I’m so glad about it Brittney Griner is on the way home. As a family member of a Russian hostage, I can only imagine the joy she will have at being reunited with her loved ones in time for the holidays.
“There is no greater achievement than that a wrongly imprisoned person is released and able to go home. That Biden administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home and make the deal that was possible, rather than wait for one that wasn’t going to happen.
“This time, US government officials let us know in advance that Paul would be left behind, unlike last April…this early warning meant our family could mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us.” And a disaster for Paul.
“I don’t know if he is aware of this, although he will certainly learn from the Russian media. Our parents…will be speaking to him soon, I’m sure.”
The Associated Press contributed to the coverage
