US basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, stands inside a defendants' cage before a court hearing in Khimki outside Moscow, Russia August 4, 2022. [Photo/Agencies]
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW — US basketball player Brittney Griner, who had been detained in Russia since February, arrived home on Friday after a prisoner swap between Washington and Moscow.
Griner was swapped for Russian citizen Viktor Bout at the Abu Dhabi airport on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed.
As Griner was on a flight bound for Texas, Bout arrived in Moscow and hugged his mother and wife after stepping onto the tarmac, television images showed.
The swap was a rare instance of cooperation between the United States and Russia since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February.
Griner, a 32-year-old two-time Olympic medalist for the US women's national basketball team, was arrested at an airport in Moscow in February for illegally bringing cannabis into Russia. Her arrest came days before the Ukraine crisis broke out and as US-Russia tensions escalated.
In August, she was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined 1 million rubles ($16,000) for drug smuggling.
Bout was arrested by Thai police at the request of Washington in 2008 and charged with selling weapons to a US-designated foreign terrorist group. He was extradited to the US in 2010 and sentenced to 25 years behind bars with a fine of $15 million in 2012.
US President Joe Biden tweeted in the morning that he had just spoken by phone with Griner. He thanked the authorities in the United Arab Emirates, where the prisoner swap took place.
