American Brittney Griner Released by Russia in Prisoner Swap for Arms Dealer Viktor Bout

WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, arrives to a hearing at the Khimki Court, outside Moscow on Aug. 4, 2022. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)

WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner has been released by Russian authorities in a prisoner swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

“She’s safe. She’s on a plane. She’s on her way home,” President Joe Biden told reporters at a Dec. 8 briefing at the White House.

“This is a day we have worked toward for a long time. We never stopped pushing for her release. It took painstaking and intense negotiations, and I want to thank all the hardworking public servants across my administration who worked tirelessly to secure her release.”

The 32-year-old Griner, who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury team and had been playing in Russia during the league’s offseason, was arrested in February after customs officials found her in possession of vaping cartridges containing less than an ounce of cannabis oil, an illegal substance in Russia.

Griner pleaded guilty while explaining that she had been prescribed cannabis for chronic pain and inadvertently packed it. She was sentenced to nine years in prison, and after an appeal was rejected, she began serving time at a penal colony in Mordovia in November, her lawyers told media outlets.

Bout, 55, was serving a 25-year sentence. He was convicted in 2011.

Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” was working to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons, including 800 surface-to-air missiles and 30,000 AK-47s, to Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, a designated foreign terrorist group based in Colombia, to kill Americans there, according to prosecutors.

“As the evidence at trial showed, Viktor Bout was ready to sell a weapons arsenal that would be the envy of some small countries,” Preet Bharara, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement at the time. “He aimed to sell those weapons to terrorists for the purpose of killing Americans. With today’s swift verdict, justice has been done and a very dangerous man will be behind bars.”

Former Soviet military officer and arms trafficking suspect Viktor Bout deplanes after arriving at the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., on Nov. 16, 2010. (U.S. Department of Justice via Getty Images)

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for alleged spying by Russia on Dec. 28, 2018, stands in a cage as he waits for a hearing in a courtroom in Moscow on Aug. 23, 2019. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Paul Whelan

The Biden administration over the summer said it pitched a prisoner swap involving both Griner and businessman Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges despite his claims of innocence; officials declined to say who would be freed if an agreement was reached.

Biden said on Dec. 8 that it was “not a choice of which American to bring home” and that Russia is treating Whelan, a Marine Corps veteran, differently for “totally illegitimate reasons.”

Biden said his administration would keep trying to secure Whelan’s release.

U.S. authorities said both Griner and Whelan were wrongfully detained.

Paul Whelen’s brother, David Whelan, told media outlets in a statement that government officials informed the family on Dec. 7 that Paul Whelan wouldn’t be released.

“That early warning meant that our family has been able to mentally prepare for what is now a public disappointment for us. And a catastrophe for Paul,” he said.

In a separate statement, the Whelan family said: “There is no greater success than for a wrongful detainee to be freed and for them to go home. The Biden Admin made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home and to make the deal that was possible.”

Other U.S. citizens imprisoned in Russia include Marc Fogel, who, like Griner, was caught with cannabis in his luggage. Trevor Reed, another American, was swapped for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko earlier this year.

U.S. President Joe Biden (R) speaks on the release of Olympian and WNBA player Brittney Griner from Russian custody, at the White House on Dec. 8, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Cherelle Griner (L), wife of Brittney Griner, speaks at the White House on Dec. 8, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

‘Gratitude’

Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, spoke by phone with Griner as the basketball player traveled back to the United States.

Griner initially landed in the United Arab Emirates, with Biden thanking officials there for assisting in the transit.

Griner told Biden in a handwritten letter in July that she was “terrified I might be here forever.”

“I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American Detainees,” she wrote.

Biden and Harris spoke with Cherelle Griner during the ordeal.

“I was grateful for the call, he says she’s top priority, but I want to see it,” Cherelle Griner said at the time. “At this point, I don’t even know who I'd be getting back.”

Cherelle Griner said after the release that she was overwhelmed with emotion.

Primarily, she said that she was feeling “sincere gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration.”