Brittney Griner, a star in the WNBA, has been set free from a prison in Russia.

  Brittney Griner, a star in the WNBA, has been set free from a prison in Russia. President Biden says that WNBA star Brittney Griner is ...

 

Brittney Griner, a star in the WNBA, has been set free from a prison in Russia.

President Biden says that WNBA star Brittney Griner is no longer in jail in Russia.

Biden stood at the White House with Griner's wife, Cherelle Griner, and said, "We've been working toward this day for a long time."

"She is okay. She is in the air. She is on her way home after being held in Russia for months without reason and in terrible conditions "From the Roosevelt Room, Biden said.

Before making the announcement, Biden talked to Brittney Griner from the Oval Office. He said she was happy, but that she was going through "trauma" and would need time to get better.

Biden said, "Brittney Griner will soon be back in the arms of her family, where she should have been all along."

In a press release on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Griner was swapped at the Abu Dhabi airport for Viktor Bout, a Russian man who was convicted of selling weapons.

"After a lot of hard work, we were able to reach an agreement with the U.S. on how to set up the swap of Bout for Brittney Griner," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "The Russian man has been sent back to his home country."

The U.S. government has been against prisoner swaps for a long time because it worries that it could lead to more Americans being jailed abroad. A Biden official said that the trade for Bout shouldn't be seen as a new norm, but as a sign that sometimes there are no other options.

The official said that the administration felt both a "moral obligation" and a "policy obligation" to bring people who are being held hostage or detained home.

"We start by asking ourselves how it's okay for someone like Brittney Griner to be put through fake trials and forced to spend time in a Russian prison colony, where she didn't deserve to be, in horrible conditions she didn't deserve. And we don't think that's okay, "said the official.

Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who is still in prison in Russia on spying charges that the U.S. says are false, did not take part in the exchange.

"We haven't been able to get Paul out of jail yet, but we're not giving up," Biden said Thursday. "We won't give up ever."

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Senior administration officials later told reporters on a conference call that the deal to get Brittney Griner out of jail was made in the last few days after months of talks and many different proposals, all of which were meant to get Whelan out of jail as well.

But the Russians refused to think about letting Whelan go.

On a conference call, an official told reporters, "We didn't have a choice of which American to bring home." "It was a choice between bringing Brittney Griner home or not bringing any Americans home."

Cherelle Griner said she was too emotional to speak, and she thanked Vice President Harris, Vice President Biden, and others in the administration who helped get her wife's release. She thanked the WNBA, the agent for Griner, and other people.

"BG and I will keep working to get every American, including Paul, a home," she said.

Biden and his administration had made getting Griner out of jail a top priority, and he was facing more and more pressure to do so. In July, she sent him a handwritten letter in which she said, "I'm afraid I might have to stay here forever." Biden said last month that he hoped Russian President Vladimir Putin would be more open to talking about a prisoner exchange after the U.S. midterm elections.

Griner is a seven-time WNBA All-Star who plays for the Phoenix Mercury. She has won two gold medals at the Olympics and is the first openly gay athlete to have a contract with Nike. She also played basketball for the UMMC Ekaterinburg team in Russia when the WNBA was not in season.

In August, a Russian court gave her a nine-year prison sentence because she brought less than a gram of hash oil into the country when she went there in February to play in the Russian women's professional basketball league. Last month, she was sent to a prison colony in Mordovia, which is about 300 miles southeast of Moscow, to start serving her time.

Griner admitted in court that she packed two vape cartridges by accident when she was in a hurry to pack her bags. However, she showed proof that her U.S. doctor had legally given her hash oil to help with pain.

In February, when tensions between the US and Russia were rising, she was arrested just days before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The U.S. government said that Griner was being held against his will and tried to trade Griner and Whelan with Russia. The White House said that it made a "substantial offer" to get Griner and Whelan back in the summer.

On Wednesday, a U.S. official went to see Whelan's sister to tell her about Griner. A U.S. official also called Whelan in prison to tell him about Griner. The official told reporters that Biden also plans to talk to Whelan's family.

Biden said that his team is still working to get him out of jail.

"Unfortunately, Russia is handling Paul's case differently than Brittney's for no good reason," Biden said.