US says freed in high-level Russian prisoner exchange

American officials said that Russia freed Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange, with the US releasing the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The swap, at a time of heightened tensions over Ukraine, achieved a top goal for Joe Biden, but carried a heavy price and left behind an American jailed for nearly four years in Russia.

The deal, the second such exchange with Russia in eight months, procured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist whose months-long imprisonment on drug charges brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees. A Michigan corporate security executive, Paul Whelan, has been jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the US government have said are baseless.

Biden s authorization to release a Russian felon nicknamed the Merchant of Death underscored the escalating pressure on his administration to get Griner home, especially after the recent resolution of her criminal case and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony.

The deal was confirmed by US officials with direct knowledge of the negotiations, who were not authorized to publicly discuss it before a White House announcement and spoke on condition of anonymity.