Viktor Bout Prisoner exchange with Brittney Griner

Viktor Bout, most infamous arms dealer, a prisoner exchange with US basketball star Brittney Griner.

The US and Russia have exchanged jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, held in an American prison for 12 years.

Griner had been in custody since February after Moscow airport officials found cannabis oil in her luggage while she was returning to the US after playing in Russia.

Rumours had circulated in US media for months that senior state department officials had sought to secure Griner's release in exchange for the arms dealer's freedom.

So notorious are the exploits of the former Soviet air force officer that they inspired a Hollywood film, and garnered him an impressively fearsome nickname.

Bout was extradited from Thailand to the US in 2010, after a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) two years earlier.

Agents from the DEA posed as potential buyers from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as Farc. That group - which has since disbanded - was classified as a terrorist organisation by the United States.

Bout claimed he was simply an entrepreneur with a legitimate international transport business, wrongly accused of trying to arm South American rebels - the victims of US political machinations.

But a jury in New York didn't believe his story.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in April 2012 after being found guilty of conspiracy to kill Americans and US officials, delivering anti-aircraft missiles and aiding a terrorist organisation.

His three-week trial heard that Bout had been told the weapons would be used to kill US pilots working with Colombian officials. Prosecutors said he replied: "We have the same enemy."

Bout - a Russian national born in Soviet-ruled Tajikistan - began his career in air transport in the early 1990s, after the fall of the USSR.

According to a 2007 book - Merchant of Death, by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun - Bout built up his business using military planes left on the airfields of the collapsing Soviet empire in the early 1990s.

The sturdy Antonovs and Ilyushins were up for sale along with their crews, and were perfect for delivering goods to bumpy wartime airstrips around the world.

Bout - who was 45 when he was sentenced - is said to have begun channelling weapons through a series of front companies to war-torn parts of Africa.

The UN named him as an associate of former Liberian President Charles Taylor - who was convicted in 2012 on charges of aiding and abetting war crimes during the Sierra Leone civil war.

"[Bout is a] businessman, dealer and transporter of weapons and minerals [who] supported former President Taylor's regime in [an] effort to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds," UN documents state.

Media reports in the Middle East claimed he was a gun-runner for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

He is also alleged to have armed both sides in Angola's civil war and supplied weapons to warlords and governments from the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and Libya.

In an interview with the UK's Channel 4 News in 2009, he flatly denied ever dealing with al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

But he did admit to flying arms to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, saying they were used by commanders fighting against the Taliban.

He also claimed to have helped the French government transport goods to Rwanda after the genocide, and to have transported UN peacekeepers.

But law enforcement agencies pursued him throughout the 2000s. He left his home in Belgium in 2002 when the authorities there issued an arrest warrant.

It is thought Bout travelled under several aliases, moving through countries such as the United Arab Emirates and South Africa before resurfacing in Russia in 2003.

In the same year, British Foreign Office minister Peter Hain coined the nickname Merchant of Death

After reading a 2003 report about him, Mr Hain said: "Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms... from East Europe, principally Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine to Liberia and Angola.

"The UN has exposed Bout as the centre of a spider's web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers and other operatives, sustaining the wars."

The US made moves against Bout throughout the 2000s, freezing his assets in 2006, but there was no law he could be prosecuted under in the US.

Instead, US agents bided their time until 2008 when they posed as buyers for Colombia's Farc rebels and gained an introduction to Bout through one of his former associates.

Shortly after the undercover officers discussed arms shipments to Farc with Bout, Thai authorities arrested him and lengthy legal proceedings began to bring him to the US.

Bout said the US case against him was politically motivated; his wife has been quoted as saying his only connection with Colombia was "tango lessons".

The Russian authorities supported him throughout his legal proceedings, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowing to fight to secure his return to Russia and labelling the Thai court's decision "unjust and political".

The 2005 film Lord of War, loosely based on the arms dealer's life, has the anti-hero escaping justice at the end.

Perhaps it seemed unlikely Bout would ever achieve the same - but after 12 years behind bars, he has now been flown home to freedom.

President Joe Biden said Griner was safe and on a plane home from the United Arab Emirates.

"I'm glad to say Brittney's in good spirits... she needs time and space to recover," he said at the White House. Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and last month sent to a penal colony.

The Biden administration proposed a prisoner exchange in July, aware Moscow had long sought Bout's release. The elaborate swap involved two private planes bringing the pair to Abu Dhabi airport from Moscow and Washington respectively, and then flying them home.

According to Politico website they walked past each other on the airport tarmac.

"The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement. Hours later he spoke to his family and said he was back on Russian soil. Reports said his plane had stopped for refuelling in the Dagestan region, three hours' flight from Moscow.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Brittney Griner's wife Cherelle praised the efforts of the Biden administration in securing her release: "I'm just standing here overwhelmed with emotions."

 

The heir to the Saudi throne has good relations with Russia's Vladimir Putin and in September he helped co-ordinate a complex swap of hundreds of prisoners held by Russia .

 When negotiations began to secure Griner's release during the summer, the US made clear it wanted ex-marine Paul Whelan to be included in an exchange. But it became clear Whelan, jailed in 2018 on suspicion of spying, would not be part of the Russian swap, dashing his family's hopes.

Bout's lawyer, Alexei Tarasov, told Russian TV that from the start the US wanted two of its citizens returned, and Russia's foreign ministry complained that "Washington categorically refused to engage in dialogue".

Paul Whelan told CNN he was "greatly disappointed" more had not been done to free him, as he had carried out no crime: "I don't understand why I'm still sitting here," he said.

President Biden finally signed the order for Bout's release, commuting his 25-year jail term, in a direct swap for Griner.

"In the end, as we have seen, the exchange took place in the format of one for one. Because really an exchange should be equal," said Mr Tarasov.

Bout's wife Alla told Russian TV she had spoken to him only two days ago: "He was supposed to call me tonight. Now we'll see each other and hug each other. That's better than any phone call."

Viktor Bout sold arms to warlords and rogue governments, becoming one of the world's most wanted men.

Dubbed the "merchant of death" for gun-running in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian's exploits inspired the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War, which was loosely based on his life.

 

His secretive career was brought to an end by an elaborate US sting in 2008, when he was arrested at a hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok, to the anger of the Russian government.

He was extradited two years later and has spent the past 12 years languishing in an American jail for conspiring to support terrorists and kill Americans.

Bout's circumstances could hardly be more different from that of his opposite number in the prisoner swap.

Brittney Griner, 32, is one of the best-known sportswomen in America. During the US basketball season the double Olympic champion is a star centre for Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA.

 

Her only reason for flying to Moscow was to play in Russia during the off-season in the US. She told her Russian trial that the cannabis oil found in her bag had been an "honest mistake".

In his tweet, President Biden posted a picture from the Oval Office alongside Griner's wife Cherelle.

"Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home," he wrote. Shortly afterwards they both spoke publicly in statements carried live on US TV networks.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken singled out the efforts of presidential envoy Roger Carstens, who was accompanying Griner on the plane from the UAE.

Leading figures in US basketball welcomed her release, among them twice WNBA champion Breanna Stewart of the Seattle Storm.

 

Griner was moved last month to a penal colony in Mordovia, a remote area some 500km, (310m) south-east of Moscow. She was held not far from where Paul Whelan is serving his 16-year jail term on spying charges.

In his statement President Biden said Russia had treated Whelan's case differently from Griner's for totally illegitimate reasons.

"While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul's release we have not given up; we will not give up," he vowed.

Whelan's brother, David, praised Griner's release and said US officials had warned the family in advance that Paul Whelan was not part of the exchange.

"It's clear the US government needs to be more assertive," he said in a statement. "If bad actors like Russia are going to grab innocent Americans, the US needs a swifter, more direct response."

Former White House national security advisor John Bolton condemned the deal as a not a swap but a surrender by the Biden administration: "Terrorists and rogue states all around the world will take note of this and it endangers other Americans in the future."

Thursday's prisoner exchange is not the first between Russia and the US this year. US marine Trevor Reed spent three years in jail for assault before being traded last April for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of smuggling cocaine.

Speaking from a Russian penal colony, Paul Whelan said he had been told that Russia "put me at a level higher than what they did with Trevor and Brittney", because he had been accused of spying.

President Biden urged Americans to take precautions before travelling overseas, and warned of the risk of being wrongfully detained by a foreign government.

She's arguably the greatest female basketball player of all time, and she was detained in Moscow amid the war in Ukraine. After two months in custody, the world is now paying more attention to her case.

 

In one of the last public sightings of Brittney Griner, captured on CCTV, the American professional basketball player is seen walking through airport security trailing a small, black suitcase.

Ms Griner, a star centre for the Phoenix Mercury, had landed at the Sheremetyevo airport, outside Moscow, in February. She was in Russia to play during the WNBA off-season.

In the security footage, she wears running shoes, black sweatpants and a black hoodie with "Black Lives for Peace" written on the back, her dark hair hanging in locs down past her shoulders.

At 6ft 9in - tall even by basketball standards - she towers above the customs agents and other travellers.

In another shot, she is seen sitting in front of a man, seemingly a customs agent, shaking her head "no". Then, nothing - until a Russian mugshot emerged on state television.

Ms Griner, 31, had been arrested by Russian authorities on drug charges.

On 14 June, state-owned Russian outlet TASS reported that her pre-trial detention had been extended until 2 July.

Citing unnamed sources, TASS has also reported that Russia hopes to trade Ms Griner for an arms trafficker serving a 25-year sentence in the US, Viktor Bout.

Asked about this report, the US State Department said it "would not comment on speculation".

"What we will say is that using the practice of wrongful detention as a bargaining chip represents a threat to the safety of everyone travelling, working, and living abroad. The United States opposes this practice everywhere," a spokesman said.

The uncertainty around her fate has fuelled an outpouring of support for the player. And it has also engendered a sense of outrage among some fans who say the response to Ms Griner's detainment was, at first, strangely muted.

Following her arrest, fans and experts said that they felt the attention she was given in comparison to male players exposed longstanding gender inequities in professional sports.

"If this was an NBA [professional men's league] player of her calibre... this would be on the cover of not only every sports page but every news media page in the world," said Tamryn Spruill, a sports journalist who is writing a book on the WNBA and Ms Griner's contributions to the league.

 

Ms Griner, a nine-year veteran of the league - is the "best of the best", said Melissa Isaacson, a sportswriter and professor at Northwestern University in the US state of Illinois.

"She's every bit the Tom Brady of her sport," Ms Isaacson said. "You could argue very accurately that she is one of the best athletes in the world." A native of Houston, Texas, she earned a basketball scholarship to Baylor University where she led the team to a national championship.

She is now one of the WNBA's most dominant players in history, widely considered the best offensive player in the league.

Few have accomplished what Ms Griner has done - winning a college championship, WNBA and Euroleague titles and an Olympic gold medal. And, famously, her ability to dunk is unmatched.

Off the court, she has also been seen as a trailblazer, coming out as gay at age 22, just around the time of her entry into professional sport.

She then became the first overall draft pick in the WNBA that year and, soon after, the first openly gay athlete to be endorsed by Nike.

"Before Griner, there was this shadow over the league, where it was like 'don't say gay,'" Ms Spruill said. "And she was just like 'screw that, this is who I am'."

"BG's always been one to be a pioneer," Griner's teammate, Diana Taurasi has said.

 

Despite all this, Ms Griner had a second job, and that was why she had flown to Russia - to play for EuroLeague team UMMC Ekaterinburg, where she had worked since 2014 during the US off-season.

Roughly half of WNBA players compete overseas in the off-season. For most, it's a way to augment their domestic income: WNBA players receive roughly five times more in Russia than they do in the US.

"If she were Steph Curry or LeBron James, she wouldn't be over there at all because she'd be making enough money," Ms Spruill said.

Ms Griner's counterparts in the men's league make more than 200 times the maximum WNBA salary.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the EuroLeague suspended all Russian teams and US and WNBA officials began calling players out of the country.

But it was too late for Brittney Griner, who is believed to have entered Russia one week earlier, on 17 February, though the timing remains unclear.

The Russian Federal Customs Service said in a press release that a sniffer dog had led authorities to search the carry-on luggage of an American basketball player and that it had found vape cartridges containing hashish oil. A state-owned Russian news agency, Tass, identified the player as Ms Griner.

Russian authorities only confirmed her detention the third week of March, though they disclosed she was stopped at the airport in February.

 

Initially, US authorities and representatives for Brittney Griner were largely silent, other than to say they were working to bring her home.

In early May, however, the State Department said it considers Ms Griner to be "wrongfully" detained.

The case is now reportedly being handled by a special departmental section that specialises in helping release Americans held hostage or wrongfully imprisoned overseas.

On 13 May, the US State Department said a consular official the court hearing in which her hearing was extended, and spoke to Griner briefly.

A spokesman said Griner was doing "as well as can be expected during exceedingly difficult circumstances".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in April that American officials are "doing everything we can" to help her.

"There's only so much I can say given the privacy considerations at this point," Mr Blinken said.

Ms Griner's agent, Lindsay Colas, has said she was in "close contact" with the player and her lawyer in Russia, but could not comment further.

While there is no indication that Ms Griner's arrest was connected to the invasion of Ukraine, some US officials have indicated strained US-Russian relations may jeopardise her safe return.

"We don't want Ms Griner to become a pawn in the political battle that's being waged throughout the world right now," said US congressman John Garamendi, a member of the House of Representatives' armed services committee.

"The war in Ukraine has essentially severed diplomatic ties between the US and Russia," Mr Garamendi said. "That is going to exacerbate this issue."

She could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted on drug charges.

The US embassy in Russia did not respond to a request for comment.

 

As Ms Griner's detention grinds on, some fans have been left incredulous by an apparent lack of attention for a world-class athlete in prison among sports media.

Some have speculated that the silence was intentional - an effort to avoid inflaming an already precarious situation amid negotiations with Russia. But others, like Ms Spruill, say the somewhat muffled initial coverage on Ms Griner lays bare the clear inequities faced by female athletes.

Much more ink has been devoted to male players - whether it is American football player's Tom Brady's on-again, off-again retirement, Novak Djokovic's Covid saga in Australia, or Aaron Rodger's vaccination status - than to Brittney Griner, Ms Spruill points out.

More than 260,000 fans have signed an online petition, organised by Ms Spruill, demanding the US government prioritise her safe return and treat her like "any other sports icon".

"There has absolutely not been enough coverage," Ms Spruill said. "It's hard for me to read that other than a choice by the broader media." Ms Griner's wife, Cherelle, posted on Instagram in April about the painful wait.

"People say 'stay busy.' Yet, there's not a task in this world that could keep any of us from worrying about you. My heart, our hearts, are all skipping beats everyday that goes by," she wrote.