She was freed on Thursday in a one-for-one prisoner swap for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to a U.S. official.
WNBA star, Brittney Griner, who was held for months in Russian prisons on drug charges, has been released.
She was freed on Thursday in a one-for-one prisoner swap for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to a U.S. official.
The one-for-one exchange agreement negotiated with Moscow in recent weeks was given final approval by President Joe Biden within just the last week, according to sources familiar with the deal, CBS News reports. The swap took place on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates.
Five former U.S. officials told CBS News the agreement had been reached as of last Thursday.
A White House official said President Biden was in the Oval Office Thursday morning on the phone, speaking with Griner and her wife, and that Vice President Kamala Harris was also in the room. In accordance with standard procedure for freed U.S. prisoners, Griner was expected to quickly undergo a medical evaluation.
The 32-year-old Griner was facing nine years in a Russian penal colony, where she was expected to toil in sweatshop conditions while sewing for 12 hours or more per day.
The deal, the second of such exchange in eight months with Russia, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad, Daily Mail reports. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose monthslong imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.
The swap was confirmed by US officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations who were not authorized to publicly discuss the deal before a White House announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Biden spoke with Griner on the phone Thursday while her wife, Cherelle, was in the Oval Office. The president was to address reporters later in the morning.
Russian and US officials had conveyed cautious optimism in recent weeks after months of strained negotiations, with Biden saying in November that he was hopeful that Russia would engage in a deal now that the midterm elections were completed. A top Russian official said last week that a deal was possible before the end of 2022.
Even so, the fact that the deal was a one-for-one swap was a surprise given that U.S. officials had for months expressed their determination to bring home both Griner and Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have described as baseless.
In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world's most prolific arms dealers. Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.