Female basketball player, Brittney Griner is recuperating at a military medical facility in Texas after nearly 10 months of imprisonment in Russia.
The basketball star – who was released Thursday as part of a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia for notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout – arrived at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for a routine evaluation early Friday, and officials have not specified how long she will be there.
Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on drug charges, was released in a one-for-one prisoner swap for international arms dealer Viktor Bout on Thursday, CBS News reported, citing a U.S. official.
In her first Instagram post since Brittney’s return to the U.S. this week, Cherelle — who married the WNBA star in 2019 — wrote that her “heart was made whole thanks to the collective efforts of MANY,” as she shared a collage of faces who helped Brittney get back home.
In her Instagram post on Saturday, Cherelle personally thanked more than 50 people by name — including Joy Reid, Gayle King, Robin, Roberts, Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Tamika Mallory, and three congress people — for their work in getting Brittney back to the states. She also thanked a few organizations, the Biden-Harris Administration, and SPEHA.
“I’m humbled by their hearts,” she wrote. “To care for another, a stranger to some, a friend to some— is humanity in its purest form! 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!”
“I appreciate each and every one of you,” Cherelle continued. “Let’s continue to use our hands, voices, platforms, and resources to bring Paul [Whelan] and all Americans home. All families deserve to be whole! Love, Cherelle Griner ❤️🤍💙”
Meanwhile, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was freed last week from US custody in a prisoner swap for American basketball star Brittney Griner, has joined the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), according to the party’s leader, a Kremlin loyalist.
On Telegram on Monday, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky said “the party card of the Liberal Democratic Party” had been “personally handed” to Bout.
“I am sure that Viktor Bout – a strong-willed and courageous person – will take a worthy place in it. Welcome to our ranks!,” he wrote in a post that included a picture of the two men.
Founded in 1991, the LDPR espouses a hardline, ultranationalist ideology that demands Russia reconquer the countries of the former Soviet Union.
It has been one of the most vehement supporters of the invasion of Ukraine, often calling for a more severe approach from Moscow.
Bout dubbed the “Merchant of Death”, returned to Russia on 8 December, after being released from a 25-year prison term in exchange for Griner, who was arrested in mid-February after officials at Moscow airport when cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
Bout was arrested by US authorities in Thailand in 2008, with prosecutors charging that his extensive arms smuggling in hotspots across the world amounted to material support of “terrorism”.
The Kremlin has maintained the arrest was politically motivated.