Moscow released WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for jailed businessman Viktor Bout
(L) American basketball player Brittney Griner; (R) Russian entrepreneur Viktor Bout © Kypros;Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images
Moscow and Washington conducted a high-profile prisoner swap on Thursday. Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who had been in a US prison for 11 years serving his 25-year term, has been exchanged for WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to a penal colony in Russia on drug smuggling charges.
The swap took place at the Abu Dhabi airport in the United Arab Emirates, following lengthy negotiations between the two countries, according to the ministry.
“Washington categorically refused to discuss including the Russian national in the exchange scheme. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation continued to actively work on rescuing our compatriot,” the ministry noted.
US President Joe Biden has already spoken with Griner by phone, the media reports. Biden is expected to give remarks on the exchange shortly.
Both Griner and Bout were pardoned by their respective nations before the swap, which means they won’t need to continue serving their terms at home, TASS reported.
Bout was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2012 following a conviction on gun-running charges. He denied any wrongdoing and was imprisoned in Marion, Illinois.
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Bout was born in 1967 and served in the Soviet military in the 1980s. After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, he founded an air freight business, according to his personal website.
In 2008, Bout was arrested in Thailand after a sting operation run by the US Drug Enforcement Administration. He was subsequently extradited to the US, where he was accused of agreeing to sell weapons to informants posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a left-wing guerrilla group that the US listed as a terrorist organization at the time.
Professional basketball player Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport back in February, when cannabis oil was found in her luggage. In August, she was sentenced to nine years on drug charges. Griner pleaded guilty, but maintained she did not intend to break any law but packed the containers containing the illicit substance “accidentally.”
The potential swap of the high-profile prisoners has been long-negotiated by the US and Russia. According to multiple media reports, Washington has been trying to secure a simultaneous release of Griner and a former US Marine Paul Whelan, convicted in Russia on espionage charges. Whelan is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia following a 2020 espionage conviction.
