Phoenix Mercury center and WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner has been introduced from a Russian penal colony and is in United States custody after a prisoner exchange for arms seller Viktor Bout, President Joe Biden confirmed Thursday early morning.
Senior administration officials said Griner had been released from the penal colony within the previous 48 hours and taken to Moscow right before flying to the United Arab Emirates and is at the moment on her way again to the United States.
CBS News was 1st to report the trade.
In a speech at the White Property, Biden said the exchange had been in the operates for the past two months, and that he experienced given the final go-forward. He added that he had spoken with Griner on the cell phone. Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, was at the White Household on Thursday.
Biden said the “past number of months have been hell for Brittney” but that she is in excellent spirits.
GRINER TIMELINE:Complete timeline foremost up to WNBA star’s release
Feeling:The electric power of love: Cherelle Griner is major hero in Brittney Griner’s release
‘BG IS FREE’:Emotional reactions to Brittney Griner’s release
WHO IS VIKTOR BOUT? Arms seller and ‘Merchant of Death’ freed in exchange for Brittney Griner
WHO IS PAUL WHELAN? American stays imprisoned in Russia
The offer is the 2nd prisoner exchange with Russia in 8 months. Biden’s administration had confronted increasing pressure to get Griner produced, and in November soon after the midterms, Biden reported he hoped Russian President Vladimir Putin would talk a lot more seriously about a prisoner exchange.
Biden has a fraught connection with Putin that has turn into far more volatile all through the war in Ukraine, with Biden possessing referred to as Putin a war prison and a “pure thug” who is waging an immoral war versus the men and women of Ukraine.
Former coach Kim Mulkey ultimately breaks silence on Brittney Griner
About the past several months, previous Baylor coach Kim Mulkey has not commented on Griner’s situation. But the LSU’s women’s basketball coach offered properly needs to her previous standout player in a assertion to ESPN.
“God is very good. Prayers are potent. Brittney is on her way property where by she belongs,” Mulkey explained to ESPNW’s M.A. Voepel. “Our prayers remain with her and her relatives as they get better and mend collectively.” – Cory Diaz
Brittney Griner ‘relieved to be heading home’
“We never ever forgot about Brittney,” Biden reported. “I am glad to be able to say Brittney is in good spirits. She’s relieved to at last be heading household, and the fact remains that she’s dropped months of her daily life, knowledgeable a needless trauma. She warrants place, privateness and time with her loved types to recover and recover from her time being wrongfully detained.
“She wrote to me again in July. She failed to talk to for special treatment, even however we’d been working on her launch from day one. She requested, a simple quote, ‘Please you should not forget about about me and the other American detainees,’ ” Biden added.
Biden said the United States is continue to performing to bring home Paul Whelan, who has been jailed in Russia because 2018 on rates of espionage.
“When we celebrate Brittney’s homecoming, we continue being fully commited to viewing Paul Whelan produced. We will not relent in our endeavours until Paul is house with loved ones. We will not quit doing work to carry residence every U.S. citizen wrongfully detained,” Vice President Kamala Harris explained on social media.
Griner will get a entire medical and mental examine-up, White Residence press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Look at Reside: Griner freed from Russia, President Biden gives remarks
Watch: The instant Brittney Griner uncovered she was likely residence
Griner smiled as she received the information that she was heading property after staying detained in Russia for 294 times. Her expression was one particular of contentment and relief.
Footage from Russian Condition media confirmed Griner boarding a plane at Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, all through the prisoner exchange. She reported she “failed to know where by” she was headed, but was “joyful” to be out of a Russian penal colony.
Some faces of Russian officials were being blurred in the course of the exchange for Bout.
When was Brittney Griner arrested in Russia?
Griner, an 8-time WNBA all-star center and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 and sentenced to 9 a long time in prison just after law enforcement claimed they discovered vape canisters that contains cannabis oil in her baggage in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. Griner admitted she experienced the canisters in her luggage but testified she experienced inadvertently packed them in haste and that she had no legal intent.
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The U.S. authorities experienced repeatedly said Griner, 31, was wrongfully detained.
Who is Viktor Bout?
Why Paul Whelan was not produced
Whelan, a former Marine and corporate security govt, was detained in Russia in December 2018 and sentenced to 16 many years in jail. U.S. officials characterized the espionage charges towards Whelan as “bogus,” and it was asked for that Whelan be produced alongside with Griner, but that was rejected.
Senior administration officers said Thursday that there was only a single selection for Griner’s launch and that was a 1-for-1 exchange for Bout as Russia insisted that was the only way Griner would be produced from their custody.
“It is so essential to me that it is apparent that we do not begrudge Ms. Griner her freedom,” Whelan’s brother, David, said in an e mail to the media on Thursday. “As I have generally remarked, Brittney’s and Paul’s circumstances have been under no circumstances actually intertwined. It has constantly been a sturdy possibility that 1 may possibly be freed with no the other.
“The sentiments I shared in April about Trevor (Reed) are unchanged: this is the celebration we would like for so a great deal for our own family members. She will be reunited with her family members. Brittney is absolutely free. And Paul is nonetheless a hostage.”
Jean-Pierre, the White Residence push secretary, stated it grew to become clear in recent weeks that Russia would not negotiate in fantastic religion regarding Whelan’s release.
“It was both Brittney or no just one at all,” Jean-Pierre explained. “We are not going to apologize for that.”
Basketball group speaks out
On ESPN’s “Initially Consider” Thursday early morning, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, who has talked every day on her social media accounts about Griner’s scenario, reported the information of Griner’s release moved her to tears.
“I cried,” Staley said. “…This is the moment we’ve all been praying for. I know her heart is for the voiceless, I think her voice will be as powerful as potent can be … when she speaks out, when she advocates for those who have been in the placement she’s been in, that we proceed to wrap our arms close to her, to make sure she has the toughness to keep on to endure the fight that’s ahead of her — because there’s a battle.”
Griner has played for the Mercury for 9 seasons, just after she was drafted No. 1 over-all in the 2013 WNBA draft adhering to a dominant school profession at Baylor. She is a two-time Defensive Player of the Yr, a 3-time very first-team All-WNBA selection and the league’s career chief in blocks for every recreation.
The Mercury and Suns said in a joint statement Thursday that their thoughts were of “joyous celebration, deep gratitude, grief for the time lost and honest hope for all families still awaiting the return of a beloved just one.”
Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, who played in Russia for seven years, said on ESPN that with Griner’s return “our whole WNBA spouse and children, it is a sisterhood” is total again.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league is thrilled that Griner is on her way property to her household and good friends. “We thank the associates of the NBA and WNBA local community who never ever wavered in their initiatives to raise consciousness of Brittney’s unjust situations,” Silver stated.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert spoke of Griner’s bravery and dignity in her statement.
“There has not been a working day around the earlier ten months in which we all have not experienced Brittney Griner on our minds and in our hearts and that has now turned into a collective wave of pleasure and aid knowing that she will before long be reunited with her loved ones, the WNBA participant local community, and her good friends,” Engelbert stated. “BG has proven remarkable braveness and dignity in the confront of great adversity.”
Cherelle Griner: ‘Today, my loved ones is whole’
Cherelle Griner stated she was “overcome with feelings” soon after mastering her spouse would be unveiled from a Russian jail and thanked Vice President Harris, Secretary of Point out Antony Blinken and Nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan for their attempts.
“So more than the final 9 months, you all have been so privy to one of the darkest times of my life, and so these days I’m just standing in this article overcome with emotions, but the most important emotion that I have right now is just sincere gratitude for President Biden and his entire administration,” Cherelle Griner said at the White Household. “It truly is a delighted working day for me and my family.”
WNBA commissioner: ‘Players seriously want to see her’
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert explained she’d heard around the past 7 days that a swap for Griner could possibly appear to fruition shortly, but she hesitated to get much too fired up right up until it was a performed offer. When she listened to the news early Thursday early morning, the usually stoic commissioner bought choked up.
“I can not convey to you what this means to the total WNBA community to have her dwelling properly,” Engelbert reported, including that although the league wishes to respect Griner’s privateness and permit her time to get better from the 10-month ordeal, she is aware “players genuinely want to see her, they’ll fly everywhere to see her.”
– Lindsay Schnell
