Brittney Griner Released From Russian Detention in Prisoner Swap

Brittney Griner has been freed by Russia in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange with the U.S.

The WNBA star was released on Thursday in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the Associated Press reported, citing U.S. officials.

She was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in February when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. The Phoenix Mercury player had traveled to the country to compete in a pro league there during the WNBA off season.

The deal to free her is the second such exchange in eight months with Russia and comes at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine.

Early Thursday morning, President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter that he had spoken to Griner and she was on her way to the U.S.

"Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner," Biden said in a tweet that included photos of himself with Griner's wife Cherelle Griner in the Oval Office.

"She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home."

Speaking moments later at the White House, Biden said Griner was "in good spirits."

In televised remarks, Biden said Griner's release had involved "painstaking intense negotiations," but he did not confirm the details of the swap.

"After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under untolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along," he said.

"I'm glad to be able to say that Brittney is in good spirits. She's relieved to finally be heading home and the fact remains that she's lost months of her life, experienced needless trauma. She deserves space, privacy and time with their loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrongfully detained."

Biden cut short Bout's 25-year federal prison sentence to secure Griner's release.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the swap, with Russian news agencies reporting a statement that said he had been flown home after an exchange in Abu Dhabi.

Dubbed the "merchant of death," Bout's exploits inspired the 2005 film Lord of War. He had spent the past 12 years in a U.S. jail after being convicted of charges of conspiring to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S. officials said were to be used against Americans.

The one-for-one exchange that secured Griner's release left behind Paul Whelan, a retired marine who has been jailed for almost four years in Russia.

Biden said Griner "didn't ask for special treatment" when she wrote to him in July, but requested that the U.S. did not forget about her or any other American detainees.

"We never forgot about Brittney. We've not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for years," he said.

"This was not a choice of which American to bring home," the president said, noting that Trevor Reed—a former U.S. Marine who was serving nine years in a Russian penal colony—was brought home as part of a prisoner exchange in April.

"Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release, we are not giving up. We will never give up."

Speaking after Biden, Cherelle Griner said that she was "overwhelmed with emotions," but expressed her gratitude to Biden and his administration for securing her wife's release.

"Today, my family is whole but as you all are aware, there's so many other families who are not whole and so BG's not here to say this, but I will gladly speak on her behalf and say that BG and I will remain committed to the work of getting every American home including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today.

"As we celebrate BG being home, we do understand that there are still people out here who are enduring what I endured the last nine months of missing tremendously their loved ones."

Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless.