US-Russia Prisoner Exchange: An Arms Dealer for a Basketball Player

The exchange took place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and was considered a prime target for Joe Biden: Russia freed American basketball star Brittney Griner and the United States handed over Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The deal, the second such swap in eight months with Russia, secured the release of Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who was imprisoned for months in Russia for drug trafficking. “Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. He is safe. He’s on a plane. He’s on his way home,” Biden tweeted.
Bout is a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the U.S. Department of Justice describes as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers. Bout, who inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges of conspiracy to sell tens of millions of dollars worth of weapons that U.S. officials said would be used against Americans.
Griner was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport last February after customs officials said they found a vaporizer with cannabis oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty in July, though she still faced trial because admitting guilt in Russia’s court system does not automatically end a case. Griner acknowledged in court that he owned the vaporizer but said he had no criminal intent and that its presence in his luggage was due to hasty packaging. Before she was sentenced Aug. 4 and received a punishment her lawyers said was out of place for the crime, an emotional Griner apologized “for the mistake I made and the shame I caused them.”

Original source in Spanish