In August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia after cannabis oil was found in his luggage.
of the United States and Russian representatives confirmed on Thursday that they had made a prisoner exchange in which the basketball star Brittney Griner was exchanged for an arms dealer known as the “dealer of death”. Viktor Butin.
The news agencies AFP and Reuters and a US news channel report on the matter, among others CNN.
In August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia. He was arrested at a Moscow airport in February after e-cigarette cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in his luggage.
Former Soviet officer But has served a 25-year prison sentence in the United States. Before his arrest in 2008, he managed to be one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers for almost twenty years.
Russian According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the exchange of prisoners took place at Abu Dhabi Airport in the United Arab Emirates. The president of the United Arab Emirates and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia acted as intermediaries for the prisoner exchange, the two countries said in a joint statement published on Thursday.
According to the statement, Griner arrived in Abu Dhabi from Moscow on a private plane, while Viktor But flew from Washington after his release from US authorities.
The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are both old allies of the United States, which have opposed Russia’s isolation from the rest of the world by a war of aggression.
of the United States president Joe Biden the messaging service said on Twitter after three in the afternoon Finnish time that it had spoken with Griner a moment earlier.
“He is safe. He’s on a plane. He is on his way home,” the publication says.
The vice president is also visible in the photos published by Biden Kamala Harris and Griner’s spouse Cherelle Grinner.