Update: Brittney Griner released from Russia in 1-for-1 prisoner exchange

U.S. President Joe Biden announces a prisoner exchange with Russia from the Roosevelt Room of the White House Thursday. The United States will swap Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout with Russia to release professional American basketball player Brittney Griner. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI

WASHINGTON, D.C., Dec. 8 (UPI) — President Joe Biden said Thursday morning that WNBA star and U.S. Olympian Brittney Griner has been released from a Russian prison in a one-for-one prisoner exchange.

The exchange means that former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was not part of the deal.

The White House said the swap took place in the United Arab Emirates.

“Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner,” Biden said on Twitter. “She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home.”

Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Griner was exchanged in release for Viktor Bout.

Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” was serving a 25-year prison sentence for selling weapons U.S. prosecutors said were intended to be used to kill Americans.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, was in the Oval Office with Biden and the two were able to speak with Brittney by phone, the president said.

Griner was serving a drug-related sentence in a penal colony near Moscow after exhausting her appeals of a nine year prion sentence for carrying less than a gram of cannabis oil into the country.

Griner was arrested shortly before the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and it was speculated that she would be used as a bargaining chip as the war progressed.

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