Former Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star Brittany Griner has been released from prison in Russia as she took part in a trade between The United States of America and Russia. 

Griner, a 32-year-old former basketball player of the Phoenix Mercury and Olympic champion, was recently taken into the custody of Russian police after being discovered smuggling drugs into Moscow at a local airport. She was supposed to be playing with the UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian women’s basketball team, during the offseason yet her plans stopped after being found possessing narcotics. She was sentenced to a penal colony, a prison-like area infamously known for its harsh living conditions and brutality, for nine years by a Russian court.

President Biden immediately took action which resulted in a high-profile prisoner swap; the United States acquired Griner and Russia got the arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death”, Viktor Bout. Bout was recently serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring to sell weapons to terrorists that were planning to attack Americans.

This announcement officially came to public notice on Thursday morning, when President Biden stated Griner would be back in the country within the next 24 hours.