Viktor Bout–Brittney Griner prisoner exchange
On December 8, 2022, Russia and the United States conducted a 1-for-1 prisoner exchange, trading Brittney Griner, an American basketball player, for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer.
Griner, a WNBA champion star and Team USA Olympic athlete, had been convicted of smuggling and possession of cannabis in Russia in August 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Bout had been arrested in Thailand in 2008 and transferred to the custody of the United States, where he was convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012.
[1] The exchange took place at Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, following months of negotiations.
[9] After it was issued, and amid international pressure increasing, Bout fled to Moscow, where he lived in safety and was protected by Russian authorities.
[28][29] US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that the minimum sentence was appropriate because "there was no evidence that Bout would have committed the crimes for which he was convicted had it not been for the sting operation".
On February 17, 2022, Griner was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport after the Russian Federal Customs Service found she was carrying vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil; in Arizona she had been prescribed medicinal cannabis which is illegal in Russia.
[46] Griner's Russian attorney Alexander Boykov told the Associated Press he believed the relatively short extension of the detention indicated the case would come to trial soon.
[49] In a closed-door hearing on June 27, a court in Khimki scheduled Griner's trial to begin on July 1 and extended her detention by six months pending the outcome of her case, according to her attorney, Alexander Boykov.
[54] On November 17, Griner's lawyers said that she had been transferred to IK-2, a female penal colony in the town of Yavas in the region of Mordovia;[55] previously she was held in an undisclosed location.
Family members said Whelan had initially been told that he had been arrested to be exchanged for a Russian prisoner in the United States, mentioning Konstantin Yaroshenko (who was later released in return for American Trevor Reed), Viktor Bout, or Roman Seleznev.
[59][60] Fogel had been working as a history teacher at a Moscow school, and was sentenced to 14 years in prison at a Russian hard labor camp.
Speaking to CNN by phone from the remote Russian penal colony where he is being held, he added that while he was pleased that Griner had been freed, "I don't understand why I'm still sitting here".
[70] Also in July 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov for the first time since the start of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, to whom he made an offer from the U.S. to secure the release of Griner and Whelan.
[75] Sarah Krivanek, an American detained for a domestic violence dispute, had received attention from People magazine, and was deported from Russia on the same day of Griner's release,[5] after the U.S. Embassy had loaned her the money for her plane ticket.
[79] In an interview with Maria Butina shortly thereafter, Bout said that he spoke to Griner, wishing her luck, and that he felt that she was "positively inclined" towards him in their brief encounter.
[82] Michael McCaul, the Republican ranking member of the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said that the trade would "only embolden Vladimir Putin to continue his evil practice of taking innocent Americans hostage for use as political pawns".
[83] Historian David Silbey stated "There's that underlying sense that this is part of the Democrats' focusing on someone who is sympathetic to them and leaving a Marine behind," despite Russia's refusal to include Paul Whelan in the exchange.
[85] Some critical comments made reference to Griner's homosexuality, gender non-conformity, and past views on support for U.S. national anthem protests.
[87] The at the time Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, made a pre-game speech to the Mercury before the game began; she was also one of the notable attendants of the game that held a crowd of 10,396 people alongside former Los Angeles Lakers players Magic Johnson and Pau Gasol, then-current Lakers head coach Darvin Ham, and former tennis star Billie Jean King.
[92] After stating that she would not return to international play unless it were for the Olympic Games, Griner would return to play for Team U.S.A. in the 2024 Summer Olympics held in Paris, France alongside Mercury teammates Diana Taurasi and Kahleah Copper amidst controversy on her inclusion to the team over rookie player Caitlin Clark.
