WNBA star Brittney Griner is heading home after she was released from a Russian jail in a prisoner swap for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Follow live news updates here.
Brittney Griner’s family expressed gratitude to President Joe Biden and his administration “for the tireless work they did to bring Brittney home” in a statement released Thursday night.
The statement added:
The Biden administration has ideas about “new forms of offers” it is going to try with the Russians in an effort to secure American Paul Whelan’s release, a senior administration official said.
The official said there is a recognition that the US needs to make available “something more, something different” from what it has offered thus far.
This position comes as Whelan told CNN the administration would have to look at what it has “that these people want, and hopefully give it to them, or I’ll be here for a long time.”
Russia views Whelan as a spy, the administration official explained, which means it puts him in a different category. The official didn’t rule out the US offering a Russian spy in US custody.
President Joe Biden had already personally informed Cherelle Griner that her wife was being released from Russian detention when aides arrived with more news: Brittney Griner was now securely out of Russia — and on the telephone.
Nearly 10 months after Brittney Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport, the jubilant moment in the Oval Office on Thursday amounted to the culmination of prolonged, frustrating negotiations and one painful decision that left another detained American disappointed and wondering what his fate may be.
In conversations across an array of government channels, Russian officials were clear with their American counterparts: they would release Griner — and only Griner — in exchange for a convicted Russian arms dealer nicknamed the “merchant of death.”
Because of the matter’s exceedingly high profile, it was certain those conditions had been set by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, one US official said.
Despite Biden’s attempts to link Griner’s case to that of Paul Whelan, a former US Marine arrested on espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison two years later, it became plain recently that Putin would not budge.
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A plane carrying Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout landed in Moscow following a prisoner swap for US basketball star Brittney Griner, according to Russian state television channel Russia 24.
Bout’s wife and mother were waiting and hugged him as soon as he walked off the plane, Russia 24 footage shows.
The channel earlier released video of Bout boarding a plane, getting a quick medical check and calling his family.
Bout told a reporter in Moscow he learned that he’d be returning to his native country in the middle of the night — and that he “didn’t even get to say goodbye to anyone.”
Griner is expected to land in San Antonio, Texas, Thursday but the exact timing is unclear.
Who is Viktor Bout? Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” by his accusers, is a former Soviet military officer who was serving a 25-year sentence in the US on various charges, including conspiring to kill Americans.
the convicted arms dealer here.
The Ukrainian military said settlements in the eastern Donetsk region and northeastern Kharkiv region have come under heavy Russian fire.
