Förlust för Brittney Griner – som hyllades av Harris

On December 8, 2022, Russia and the United States conducted a prisoner exchange, trading Brittney Griner, an American basketball player, for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer. Griner, a WNBA champion star and Team USA Olympic athlete, had been convicted of smuggling and possession of cannabis in Russia earlier in 2022 and sentenced to nine years in prison. Bout had been arrested in Thailand in 2008 and transferred to the custody of the United States, where he was convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012. The exchange took place at Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, following months of negotiations. The possible release of former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges in 2018, was also part of negotiations. Russia refused to release Whelan along with Griner as part of the prison exchange; U.S. President Joe Biden said that Russia was treating Whelan's case differently "for totally illegitimate reasons". The Russian position was that Whelan was an agent and so required an exchange of comparable value such as assassin Vadim Krasikov. Griner and Bout were just considered criminals and so were of lesser value in their view.Marc Fogel, another American detained in Russia for possessing a small amount of marijuana, was also not included in the prisoner swap. However, Sarah Krivanek, an American detained for a domestic violence dispute, was deported from Russia on the same day as Griner's release.