US Basketball Star Arrives Home After Prisoner Swap With Russia
US Basketball Star Arrives Home After Prisoner Swap With Russia
Washington: American basketball supermegacelebrity Brittney Griner arrived withinside the United States Friday morning after being launched from a Russian jail in change for an palms provider referred to as the “Merchant of Death.”
Griner, 32, who became arrested in Russia in February on drug prices, became visible through an AFP reporter strolling throughout a runway after her aircraft landed in San Antonio, Texas.
White House countrywide safety spokesman John Kirby stated instructed NBC that Griner “became in very, superb spirits whilst she were given off the aircraft and regarded to be manifestly in right fitness.”
Griner will now be taken to a close-by army facility for clinical exams to make certain she has “all of the get right of entry to she desires to fitness care people simply to make certain that she is OK,” Kirby stated.
Griner became exchanged in Abu Dhabi on Thursday for Viktor Bout, a 55-yr-vintage Russian countrywide who became serving a 25-yr sentence in a US jail.
In photos launched through Russian nation media, Griner, shorn of her extraordinary dreadlocks, and a comfortable and lively Bout crossed paths at the airport tarmac and headed closer to the planes that could take them home.
Обнародованы видеокадры обмена россиянина Виктора Бута на американку Бриттни Грайнер:https://t.co/hs1cFtHbOs
Видео: ТАСС pic.twitter.com/UZ209BYPRX
— ТАСС (@tass_agency) December 8, 2022
President Joe Biden stated on Thursday that he had spoken Griner and that she sounded nicely after suffering “pointless trauma.”
– Putin says ‘compromises’ observed –
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, WNBA champion and LGBTQ trailblazer, became arrested at a Moscow airport towards a backdrop of hovering tensions over Ukraine.
She became accused of owning vape cartridges with a small amount of hashish oil and sentenced in August to 9 years in jail.
Bout, who became accused of arming rebels in a number of the world’s bloodiest conflicts, became detained in a US sting operation in Thailand in 2008, extradited to america and sentenced in 2012 to twenty-five years at the back of bars.
He landed in Russia on Thursday, nation tv stated. “Don’t worry, the whole thing is OK, I love you very much,” he instructed his mom Raisa.
While Griner’s own circle of relatives and buddies celebrated her launch, any other American held in Russia, former US Marine Paul Whelan, detained for the reason that 2018 and accused of spying, became now no longer a part of Thursday’s change.
Kirby stated america persevered running with Moscow to carry Whelan home.
Russia President Vladimir Putin stated Friday that different prisoner swaps with Washington had been possible.
“This is the end result of negotiations and the look for compromises. In this case, compromises had been observed and we are not refusing to preserve this paintings withinside the future,” Putin instructed newshounds all through a press convention in Kyrgyzstan.
– ‘Joy and relief’ –
Biden introduced Griner’s launch on Thursday flanked through her wife, Cherelle Griner, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert stated there has been a “collective wave of pleasure and relief” withinside the women’s expert league in which Griner has been a celebrity for a decade with the Phoenix Mercury.
Biden thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping “facilitate” Griner’s launch and the UAE issued a joint declaration with Saudi Arabia pronouncing it became the end result of “mediation efforts” through leaders of the 2 Arab nations.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated, however, that “the simplest nations that negotiated this deal had been america and Russia.”
At the time of her arrest, Griner were gambling for a expert group in Russia, as some of WNBA gamers do withinside the off-season.
She pleaded responsible to the prices towards her, however stated she did now no longer intend to interrupt the regulation or use the banned substance in Russia.
Griner testified that she had permission from a US health practitioner to apply medicinal hashish to alleviate ache from her many injuries.
The use of clinical marijuana isn’t allowed in Russia.
The 2005 film “Lord of War” starring Nicolas Cage became primarily based totally in component on Bout’s palms trafficking, and he has been the problem of numerous books and TV shows.
Speaking on MSNBC Friday morning, Kirby recounted worries that once his launch Bout should go back to crook activity.
“We’re going to make certain now that he is a unfastened guy that we are searching after our countrywide safety pursuits and we are as vigilant as we will be,” Kirby stated.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed the Izvestia newspaper on Friday that ties with Washington “preserve to stay in a unhappy nation.”
