HIGH PRICE FOR FREEDOM

American basketball star Brittney Griner heads home on Thursday night, Dec. 8, 2022 (Friday in Manila) freed from Russian prison in exchange for the US releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in the culmination of an eight-month saga of high diplomacy and dashed hopes. But the US failed to win freedom for another American, Paul Whelan, jailed in Russia for nearly four years. The deal, the second in eight months amid tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, secured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad and achieved a top goal for President Joe Biden. Biden’s authorization to release Bout, the Russian felon once nicknamed 'the Merchant of Death,' underscored the heightened urgency that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case on drug charges and her subsequent transfer to a penal colony. Griner, who also played pro basketball in Russia, was arrested at an airport there after Russian authorities said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil.

PHOTOS AND VIDEO BY AFP

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