Brittney Griner is headed home

After 294 days of being imprisoned in Russia for possession of less than a gram of hash oil, American and WNBA star Brittney Griner is headed home. Her release was officially secured yesterday as part of a one-for-one prisoner swap between the US and Kremlin.

🤔 Who did the US give up for Griner?... A convicted Russian arms dealer named Viktor Bout, also known as the “Merchant of Death.” Bout had been in US custody for the past decade, after being convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for supplying weapons to a terrorist organization and conspiring to kill Americans. He’s also thought to be the inspiration behind the 2005 Nicolas Cage film Lord of War.

🇺🇸🤝🇷🇺 Behind the deal: Griner was arrested in February. Two days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. And while the US maintained Griner was wrongfully detained, the invasion added layers of complexity to securing her release.

• As negotiations dragged on, it reportedly became clear that Russia was pushing for the US to release Bout – a pretty big ask (case in point: a CBS 60 Minutes segment in 2010 labeled him “one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth”).
• This led the Biden admin to “negotiate hard,” per the BBC, to include Paul Whelan, a US corporate security exec currently serving 16 years in Russian prison for espionage, in any deal. America says he was also falsely imprisoned.

Negotiations reportedly came to a head over the past few weeks, after Russia responded to the last American proposal by saying they’d only accept Griner for Bout. The swap took place at a UAE airfield yesterday (pictured above), and Griner officially landed in the US this morning.