Russia released American basketball player Brittney Griner today in a dramatic prisoner swap in which the United States freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, US officials said.
The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieves an important goal for President Joe Biden, but it came at a heavy price — and left behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia.
The deal, the second exchange with Russia in eight months, led to the release of the most prominent American detained abroad.
Griner is a two-time Olympic medalist, and her imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the wrongful detainee population.
The authorization to release the arms dealer nicknamed “the Merchant of Death” reveals the intense pressure that was on the US government to win Griner’s freedom, particularly after the recent resolution of his criminal case and transfer to a penal colony. .
