Topline
State-run Russian media published videos Thursday documenting American basketball star Brittney Griner’s release from Russian custody, a surreal behind-the-scenes look at the high-profile prisoner exchange.
Brittney Griner, shown here smiling in a Russian courtroom in July.
Key Facts
The video, published by the TASS news agency, shows Griner’s journey from a Russian penal colony to American custody.
The clip begins with Griner, with noticeably shorter hair later covered by a babushka, smiling while signing documents before leaving the prison camp carrying luggage.Griner is then shown on a plane, where she says she’s “happy” but doesn’t know where she is headed before an off-camera voice informs her she is off to the United States and “everything will be fine.”
Later footage released by state media documented Griner and Viktor Bout, a convicted weapons dealer nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” released from U.S. prison as part of the exchange, crossing paths on an airport tarmac in what appears to be the handoff between American and Russian officials that occurred in the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
All Russian media activity is tightly controlled by the Kremlin, and Russia has been known to stage videos to fit its narrative, but all indications are the footage is real, with sources confirming to ESPN’s T.J. Quinn that Griner’s newly debuted haircut was on her own volition, not wanting to “deal” with her longer hair during the brutal Russian winter.
Key Background
Griner has spent the last 10 months in Russian detention after she was arrested for cannabis possession, spending the last month at a penal colony 300 miles outside of Moscow. The U.S. considered the WNBA All-Star to be wrongfully imprisoned, and Griner’s detention coincided with a breakdown in diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Russia following the latter’s invasion of Ukraine. Numerous Republicans lawmakers criticized the Biden Administration for freeing Bout given his violent background, while other criticism centered on the exchange failing to free former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, the last remaining American in Russian custody.
Further Reading
Brittney Griner Freed From Russian Detention In Swap For ‘Merchant Of Death’ (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/12/08/russian-state-media-drops-footage-of-prisoner-exchange-involving-happy-griner/