Russia has freed WNBA star Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, American officials said.
Viktor Bout, a convicted arms dealer, has been deported from U.S. to secure Griner's releaseWNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medallist Brittney Griner is escorted from a courtroom in Moscow on Aug. 4. On Thursday, the U.S. announced that she had been freed as part of a U.S.-Russia prisoner swap.The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for U.S.
Griner's arrest in February made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad. Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, infused racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga and made each development a matter of international importance.
Security personnel walk in front of the entrance of the penalty colony IK-2 in the town of Yavas in Mordovia, central Russia, on Nov. 19. It was the last facility where Griner was reportedly being held. Griner was arrested at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport in February when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty in July, though still faced trial because admitting guilt in Russia's judicial system does not automatically end a case.
Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for alleged spying, is shown at a Moscow court on June 15, 2020. Whelan, who resided in Michigan and also holds Canadian and Irish citizenship, has denied the charges.
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