One American is free, another is not, after the US made a deal with the devil - a prisoner swap for a Russian arms dealer.
WNBA star Brittney Griner is headed home to Texas after being released from a penal colony in Russia overnight.
"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," US President Joe Biden said, announcing the news with Griner's wife Cherelle by his side.
"Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and and she should have been there all along."
Griner appeared to not know where she was being transported to, in footage released by Russian media.
"Do you know where you are headed?" a man off-camera asked.
It's exchanged a Russian arms dealer for jailed basketball star Brittney Griner. (Source: 1News)
"No," she replied.
"You are flying back home," he said.
Griner had been held in Russian detention and then was moved to a penal colony after she was caught at a Moscow airport in February with cannabis oil cartridges.
The gold medal Olympic basketballer had left America from a state where the product was legal, and said she didn't realise they were in the bottom of her bag.
She was sentenced to nine years in prison, and in July wrote to Biden on behalf of herself and other prisoners.
"She requested a simple quote: 'Please don't forget about me and the other American detainees'," Biden said.
But Griner is the only one released in the deal that sees America release notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout back to his homeland.
US negotiators had hoped to include fellow American Paul Whelan in the deal, who has been imprisoned since 2018 on what it says are trumped-up espionage charges.
"This was not a choice of which American to bring home. The choice was one or none," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
"I wholeheartedly wish that we could have brought Paul home today on the same plane as Brittney."
The problem for the US now will be Russia's determination to extract an even higher price for the release of Whelan.
The former Marine seemed to realise his fate in a phone call from his penal colony captivity today.
"I would hope this administration would do everything they could to get me home," he said.
"Regardless of the price they might have to pay."
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