Ten months after she left the US to play basketball in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner has landed in her home state of Texas.
Brittney Griner : Released video | Landing in Usa
On February 17, 2022, Griner was arrested on smuggling charges in Russia.
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 18, 1990 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 9 in (206 cm) |
| Listed weight | 205 lb (93 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Nimitz (Houston, Texas) |
| College | Baylor (2009–2013) |
| WNBA draft | 2013 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1st overall |
She was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport after the Federal Customs Service found she was carrying vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil. In Arizona, she had been prescribed medicinal cannabis, which is illegal in Russia.
Some U.S. officials expressed concern that Russia may have been using Griner as leverage in response to the Western sanctions imposed against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
The former Pentagon official Evelyn Farkas expressed concern that Griner could be used as a “high-profile hostage” by Russia.
The Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, of Houston, Texas, called for Griner’s release.
Brittney Griner Released video
American basketball star Brittney Griner was released from a Russian prison on Thursday in a swap for an arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death” after what President Joe Biden called “painstaking and intense” negotiations.
Griner, 32, who was arrested in Russia in February on drug charges, and Viktor Bout, 55, who was serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison, were exchanged at an airport in Abu Dhabi.
In footage released by Russian state media, Griner, shorn of her distinctive dreadlocks, and a relaxed and animated Bout could be seen crossing paths on the airport tarmac and heading towards the planes that would take them home.
Biden announced Griner’s release in an address to the nation at the White House. “She is safe. She is on a plane and is on her way home,” he said.
The president said he had spoken to her and she was in “good spirits” after suffering “needless trauma.”
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, WNBA champion and LGBT trailblazer, was arrested at a Moscow airport nine months ago against a backdrop of soaring tensions over Ukraine.
She was accused of possession of vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil and sentenced in August to nine years in prison.
Landing in Usa
Ten months after she left the US to play basketball in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner has landed in her home state of Texas.
Griner was jailed for carrying cannabis oil at a Moscow airport in February, and was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Thursday.
She was flown into San Antonio, where she will receive medical care.
The White House’s John Kirby told MSNBC on Friday morning that Griner is in “good spirits” and “good health”.
President Joe Biden first announced that Griner was returning home on Thursday. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, who attended Mr Biden’s announcement at the White House, was expected to meet her in San Antonio.
Griner was arrested in February – just days before Russia invaded Ukraine.
She is one of the best-known sportswomen in America. During the US basketball season the double Olympic champion was a star centre for Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.
Her reason for flying to Moscow was to play in Russia during the off-season in the US. During her trial in Russia, she said the cannabis oil found in her bag had been an “honest mistake”.
The Biden administration proposed a prisoner exchange in July, aware that Moscow had long sought the release of Bout, a convicted arms trafficker known as the Merchant of Death. He has been held in an American prison for 12 years.