The Phoenix Mercury player was released on Thursday in a one-for-one prisoner swap for a notorious international arms dealer.
Cherelle Griner is giving all the thanks after her wife, Brittney Griner, was released after being held for months in Russian prisons on drug charges.
"Yesterday my heart was made whole thanks to the collective efforts of MANY! I’m humbled by their hearts. To care for another, a stranger to some, a friend to some -- is humanity in its purest form!" Cherelle wrote on her first Instagram post since her wife's release. "As BG and I start our journey to heal our minds, bodies, and spirits -- I wanted to personally say thank you to some of the hands; seen and unseen, that helped make it possible for me to see my wife again!"
Cherelle praised the "special people in the Biden-Harris Administration and SPEHA," and gave shout-outs to specific people, including, Congressman Greg Stanton, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Angela Rye, Gayle King, Abby Phillip, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, Tracy Hughes, the Whelan family, the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation and many more.
"I appreciate each and every one of you~ Let’s continue to use our hands, voices, platforms, and resources to bring Paul and all Americans home," Cherelle ended her post. "All families deserve to be whole!"
Brittney arrived back in the U.S. early Friday, landing at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas. The WNBA star was released on Thursday in a one-for-one prisoner swap for notorious international arms dealer Viktor Bout, bringing an end to an ordeal that sparked intense high-level negotiations between Washington and Moscow to secure her freedom.
The star center for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury was detained at a Russian airport in February and later pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the discovery of cannabis-derived oil cartridges in her luggage. Brittney said she didn't mean to bring the cartridges with her when she traveled to the country to play in a Russian basketball league during the WNBA offseason.
In August, Brittney was sentenced to nine years in prison and given a fine of one million rubles (approximately $16,500) by a Russian court, after she was found guilty of drug possession and smuggling.
After five months of stalled diplomacy and various permutations of potential swap arrangements — including a previously unreported offer by the U.S. this past summer to send two prisoners back to Russia for the two Americans — sources told CBS News that the one-for-one exchange came together over the last two weeks.
President Biden announced Brittney's impending return on Thursday morning at the White House, saying, "She's safe. She's on a plane. She's on her way home."
"After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along," Biden said. "This is a day we've worked toward for a long time. We never stopped pushing for her release."
To secure Brittney's release, the president ordered that Bout be freed and returned to Russia. Mr. Biden signed the commutation order cutting short Bout's 25-year federal prison sentence.
Notably, the Griner-for-Bout exchange left retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan imprisoned in Russia. Whelan has been in Russian custody for nearly four years. He was convicted on espionage charges that the U.S. has called false.
"We've not forgotten about Paul Whelan," Mr. Biden said Thursday, adding "we will never give up" on securing his release.
U.S. officials told reporters it became clear in talks with the Russians that the prospect of securing the release of both Griner and Whelan in exchange for Bout was a nonstarter, with one official saying the U.S. had "a choice between bringing home one particular American — Brittney Griner — or bringing home none."
Whelan, who once worked as a corporate security contractor, was in Moscow for a friend's wedding when he was detained at a hotel in December 2018. Russian authorities later sentenced him to 16 years in prison for espionage — a charge the U.S. and Whelan denied.
Bout, who was most recently held at a federal prison in Marion, Illinois, was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency in Thailand following a sting operation in 2008. He was convicted of conspiring to kill Americans and began his 25-year sentence a decade ago.
Griner's arrest coincided with the February start of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and all U.S. dealings with the Kremlin have been complicated by that conflict. The U.S. has said both Griner and Whelan were "wrongfully detained," and officials have suspected that Russia has been using the American prisoners as leverage.
Griner's return for Bout marks the Biden administration's second prisoner swap with Russia. In April, the U.S. traded Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian smuggler convicted of conspiring to import cocaine, for Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who had been imprisoned in Russia for nearly three years.
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