WNBA star Brittney Griner celebrates Americans release in Russian prisoner swap
August 6, 2024On Thursday, WNBA star Brittney Griner celebrated the release of American citizens from Russian custody through a historic prisoner swap.
According to ‘Washington Blade’, Griner described the release as a “great day” while speaking with reporters after the U.S.A. women’s basketball team defeated Belgium at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Her team had just secured a spot in the quarterfinals.
“We’ll talk more about it later. But head over heels happy for the families right now,” Griner stated, according to the Associated Press. “Any day that Americans come home, that’s a win. That’s a win.”
Griner spoke with reporters just hours after Russia and Belarus released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S.A. Marine Paul Whelan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, Washington Post contributor Vladimir Kara-Murza, and a dozen others, including Russian opposition figures.
In exchange, the U.S.A., Germany, Poland, Slovenia, and Norway released eight Russian nationals who had been convicted on charges including murder and espionage.
Image Credit: Canva
Among them was Vadim Krasikov, who had been serving a life sentence in Germany for assassinating a Chechen separatist fighter in Berlin in 2019. Additionally, Slovenian authorities released two children of Russian spies who had been in their custody.
The prisoner swap is the largest between the U.S.A. and Russia since the Cold War.
Earlier this year, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died in a penal colony. Reports suggest he was to have been included in Thursday’s prisoner swap.
In February 2022, officials at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport detained Griner—a Phoenix Mercury centre and two-time Olympic gold medalist who is a lesbian and married to her wife, Cherelle Griner—after customs inspectors found hashish oil in her luggage.
A Russian court later convicted Brittney Griner of smuggling drugs into the country and sentenced her to nine years in a penal colony. On December 9, 2022, the Kremlin released her in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S.A.
Last month, Cherelle Griner gave birth to a baby boy.
Read related myGwork articles here:
Brittney Griner: “It Feels So Good To Be Home”
Brittney Griner Freed After A Prisoner Exchange
Russian Court Rejects Brittney Griner's Appeal
WNBA Star Brittney Griner Sentenced To 9 Years For Drug-Smuggling
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