Brittney Griner is about to begin her 13th season in the WNBA, though it should’ve been her 14th. Still, considering all she’s been through, the fact that she’s back on the court at all is remarkable.
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Things could’ve turned out very differently had the U.S. government not negotiated a prisoner exchange with Russia. If not for that deal, Griner might still be languishing in a Russian prison. She was punished on smuggling charges after cartridges containing less than a gram of medically-prescribed hash oil, which is illegal in Russia, were found in her bag.
Griner, who was released in a prisoner exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, opened up about that harrowing ordeal from 2022 on Cam Newton’s podcast. She recounted the day the swap finally took place. It was anything but easy or fast.
To start the process, Russian authorities transferred her from IK-2, the infamous women’s penal colony, to a holding location for the exchange. Shockingly, that stopover turned out to be a men’s prison in Moscow. But Griner was willing to endure anything at that point to taste freedom again.
“The trade took a little minute to happen, too, on my end. I had to get transferred from the penal colony to a men’s prison in Moscow, and I got checked into there,” recalled Griner.
The Russians didn’t miss an opportunity to remind her that she was under their control and authority. As part of the intake process, they forced her to strip in front of a group of men, supposedly for a security check.
It was a deliberate act of dehumanization, something Griner described as feeling like being turned into a circus animal. They examined her body and took pictures, further humiliating her before allowing the process to continue.
“I knew I was getting traded, but the way they were treating me, their one little last play to terrorize me or mess with me. Because they were checking me in, they had me stripped down, butt naked, in front of a room like probably 7 to 8 men, and they had [a] Polaroid and had me spinning in a circle, while they were taking the photos,” narrated Griner.
Eventually, a group of masked men, possibly Russian special forces, arrived to transport her. They loaded her into a van and drove her to an airfield that officially doesn’t exist on any map. From there, she was flown to Abu Dhabi for the exchange.
Even on the flight, the torment continued. The masked men mocked her, including making comments about her sexuality. But Griner stayed focused, knowing she was inching closer to home.
Griner turned down food during the flight, afraid that even at this stage, they might try to poison her. Paranoia and fear had taken hold of her that much.
When they landed in Abu Dhabi, her heart lifted. Griner could see an American plane waiting nearby. That sight brought the first real moment of peace. A U.S. official approached and calmly explained how the exchange would unfold.
Then came the moment Griner had waited for. As she walked off the Russian aircraft, the prisoner being held by the U.S., arms dealer Viktor Bout, emerged from the American plane. They briefly shook hands and exchanged a few words, each wishing the other well, before heading their separate ways.
Griner was finally in American custody. But before heading home, she made one final stop to meet the Abu Dhabi officials who helped broker the deal. It was there, during that brief pause, that she silently vowed never to leave the U.S. again.
Even after boarding the American plane, safety didn’t feel real until the wheels touched down on U.S. soil. Only then could she truly breathe.
So, who was the Russian prisoner that Russia wanted to release Griner?
Russians swapped Griner for Bout, a notorious arms dealer
Despite the torment Griner endured and the trauma she survived, many Americans opposed the prisoner swap that secured her freedom. Some critics were against it due to racism, misogyny, or homophobia. Others, however, raised more legitimate concerns, chief among them was the nature of the man the U.S. exchanged for Griner: Victor Bout.
So, who is Bout? Often referred to as the ‘Merchant of Death’, Bout is an infamous international arms trafficker who played a major role in fueling some of the world’s most violent conflicts. U.S. authorities arrested him in 2008 during a sting operation in Thailand and later extradited him to the United States.
A Manhattan jury convicted him of conspiring to sell millions of dollars’ worth of weapons, including over 20,000 AK-47 rifles and surface-to-air missiles to Marxist rebels in Colombia. A U.S. court sentenced him to 25 years in prison for plotting to kill Americans and aiding terrorist organizations.
Many also criticized the deal because it did not include Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 on espionage charges. Critics argued that Whelan, who has maintained his innocence, should have been part of the swap, and that the U.S. gave up too much to bring Griner home.
In the end, while the deal brought one American back, it also reignited debate over international diplomacy, justice and and who gets priority in high-stakes negotiations.
