President Joe Biden said Thursday that US women’s basketball star Brittney Griner is “on her way home” after Moscow reported she had been exchanged in a prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.
The US athlete, who was being held in a remote Russian penal colony, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February and handed nine years in prison in August for possessing vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil.
Biden, who was due shortly to speak to the nation from the White House, tweeted that “Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner.”
“She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” Biden said in the tweet, which included pictures of himself in the Oval Office with Griner’s wife Cherelle Griner.