Months of captivity end on UAE tarmac

(adds details, comments from U.S. officials)

By Nandita Bose and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) – In the past 48 hours, U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has traveled from a detention facility in a Russian penal colony to Moscow to a prison in the United Arab Emirates, U.S. officials said. an airport.

Greener arrived in the Abu Dhabi capital from Moscow in a private jet, while the Russian arms dealer she was swapped for, Viktor Bout, arrived in a private jet from Washington.

A U.S. official said the two passed each other on the tarmac.

After months of fruitless negotiations between the United States and Russia, her brutal 10-month life in captivity was complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the deterioration of U.S.-Russian relations.

President Joe Biden personally followed the negotiations closely for months, but it was only in recent weeks that he made the “very painful” decision to clemency Bout to complete the swap, a senior administration official said.

The UAE-Saudi joint statement said the UAE president and the Saudi crown prince led mediation efforts to secure Griner’s release.

Biden said on Thursday that he had spoken to Greiner and that she would return to the United States within 24 hours.

Greiner, a 32-year-old star player for the Phoenix Mercury in the Women’s National Basketball Association, was arrested at an airport outside Moscow on Feb. 17 for having vaping pods laced with marijuana oil in her luggage.

She was subsequently convicted of drug smuggling and transferred to one of Russia’s most horrific exile colonies, where former prisoners described torture, harsh beatings and slave labor conditions.

U.S. Marine Paul Whelan was detained by Russia following Bout’s release, in a situation his family called a “disaster.” “Negotiations … focused on bringing home two Americans who were wrongfully detained in Russia,” a US official said. Reina, or not bringing Americans home now.” (Reporting by Nandita Bose and Humeyra Pamuk; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Heather Timmons and Daniel Wallis)