Russia frees US basketball star Brittney Griner in prisoner swap

Russia says Griner traded for Viktor Bout, a Russian former arms supplier jailed in the US.

Russia has launched US basketball star Brittney Griner in a prisoner alternate, US and Russian officers have mentioned.

Russia’s international ministry mentioned she had been traded for Viktor Bout, a Russian former arms supplier jailed in the US.

The alternate came about at Abu Dhabi airport within the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, Russian information businesses reported.

US President Joe Biden mentioned Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was “on her approach residence”.

“She is secure. She is on a airplane. She is on her approach residence,” Biden wrote in a Tweet.

Griner, 32, a star of the Girls’s Nationwide Basketball Affiliation’s Phoenix Mercury, was arrested on February 17.

Talks to safe her launch had been difficult when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Febraury 24 invasion, as ties between Washington and Moscow got here beneath additional pressure.

A two-time Olympic gold medallist, Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport when cartridges containing hashish oil, which is banned in Russia, had been present in her baggage.

She was sentenced on August 4 to 9 years in a penal colony on prices of possessing and smuggling medication. She had pleaded responsible, however mentioned she had made an “sincere mistake” and had not meant to interrupt the legislation.

Final month she was taken to a penal colony within the Russian area of Mordovia to serve her jail sentence.

Biden mentioned in an tackle from the White Home that these “previous few months have been hell for Brittney” however that she was in good spirits.

‘Service provider of loss of life’

Bout was sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in a US jail after he was accused of arming insurgent teams in among the world’s bloodiest conflicts.

Moscow mentioned it had been negotiating with Washington to safe Bout’s launch “for a very long time” and that originally the US had “refused dialogue” on together with him in any swap.

“However, the Russian Federation continued to actively work to rescue our compatriot. The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland,” the defence ministry mentioned.

Variously dubbed “the service provider of loss of life” and “the sanctions buster” for his means to get round arms embargoes, Bout, 55, was one of many world’s most wished males earlier than his arrest.