The exchange took place in a one-to-one format.
The United States of America and Russia exchanged prisoners. Basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced in the Russian Federation to nine years in prison, went home to America. Instead, the US handed over arms dealer Viktor Bout, who has been imprisoned for 12 years, to Russia.
President Joe Biden said Griner was safe and on a plane home from the United Arab Emirates. The exchange process involved two private jets flying the two to Abu Dhabi airport from Moscow and Washington respectively, before taking them home. As Politico reports, a Russian man and an American woman passed each other on the runway of the airport.
The leading role in the exchange was played by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, together with the President of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The heir to the Saudi throne has good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and already coordinated the exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and Russia in September.
At the beginning of the prisoner exchange negotiations < /strong>was about the desire of the US to receive two American citizens for Victor Booth: in addition to Britney Griner, the exchange was to include former marine Paul Whelan.
Read also: NYT: Who is the 'dealer of death' Viktor Bout and why did Russia want him out of a US prison so badly?
Multiple sources familiar with the negotiations said Russian officials asked to include < strong>Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel of internal intelligence, is also on the exchange list.
However, Russia categorically refused the option of exchanging two US citizens for one Russian. In the end, President Biden signed an executive order releasing Booth, replacing his 25-year prison term with a direct exchange for Griner.
The United States administration was faced with a choice, according to White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre. or exchange the Russian Booth for the convicted Greiner, or not exchange at all. She emphasized that this exchange does not change the US approach to the situation around Ukraine, the interaction with Moscow concerned only this issue.
Britney Grinerwas arrested at the Moscow airport in February, a few days before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Vape cartridges containing a small amount of cannabis oil, which she used for medicinal purposes, were found in her luggage and charged with drug trafficking. ” and a “sanctions buster” for his ability to circumvent arms embargoes, was one of the world’s most wanted men until his arrest in 2008. He sold weapons to rogue states, rebel groups and dictators in Africa, Asia and South America.
However, in 2008 Bout was ensnared by US intelligence services: he agreed to sell to undercover US agents posing as representatives of the Colombian leftist FARC guerrillas, 100 surface-to-air missiles with which they planned to attack the American military.
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In 2012, a court in New York found him guilty and sentenced him to 25 years in prison, the minimum possible punishment. Since then, the Russian state has sought to return it.
