The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation announced that the exchange of Russian businessman Viktor Bout for American basketball player Brittney Greiner took place at the Abu Dhabi airport. The press service of the agency reported this on Telegram.

 "On December 8, 2022, the exchange procedure of Russian citizen Viktor Bout for US citizen Brittney Greiner, who were serving sentences in correctional institutions of the United States of America and the Russian Federation, was successfully completed at the Abu Dhabi airport," the message states.

 The agency noted that representatives of the Russian Federation had been negotiating with the United States for a long time regarding Bout's release, but the American authorities "categorically refused" dialogue regarding the inclusion of the Russian in the exchange scheme.

 "As a result of the efforts made, it was possible to reach an agreement with the American side regarding the organization of the exchange of V. A. Buta for B. Greiner," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation said.

 Also, the president of the Russian division of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, Ivan Melnikov, said that before the exchange, the convicts were pardoned and should not serve part of the sentence in their homeland.

 In addition, US President Joe Biden said on Twitter that he spoke to Greiner on the phone and that she is currently on a plane home.

 <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner.<br> <br>She is safe.<br>She is on a plane. <br>She is on her way home. <a href="https://t.co/FmHgfzrcDT">pic.twitter.com/FmHgfzrcDT</a></p>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1600841306560937986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src=" https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 In August, Greiner, a two-time Olympic basketball champion for the United States, was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug trafficking. In February, she was detained at the Sheremetyevo airport because of a cartridge with hashish oil in her luggage.

 At the same time, Bout was detained in Thailand in 2008 for trying to sell weapons to a Colombian group. After that, the Russian was extradited to the USA, where the court sentenced him to 25 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to kill US citizens and material support of terrorism.