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There are scenes that are reminiscent of an agent exchange in the last century: the US basketball player Brittney Griner - here on the left in a red jacket - is accompanied by Russian secret service employees on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi against the arms dealer Wiktor But - on the right with a folder in the Hand - exchanged.
End of months of imprisonment.
The Russian Defense Ministry released this and other footage of Griner being taken away from the IK2 women's penal colony in central Russia.
Griner was arrested at Moscow airport in February for alleged drug possession.
In November she was transferred to a penal colony where prison conditions are particularly harsh.
So the pressure on Biden was great, also because more and more prominent supporters of Griners like basketball star Stephen Curry were campaigning for them.
Now the liberation.
Joe Biden, US President
"She's sure she's on a plane, on her way home after months of unjust imprisonment."
Actually, Biden not only wanted to get Griner released, but also ex-Marine Paul Whelan, who has been held captive in Russia for alleged espionage for four years.
Yet the deal was apparently Griner or Nobody.
And it's an unequal exchange: while the US basketball player was locked up in Russia for one gram of hashish oil, Viktor But is responsible for more serious crimes.
He supplied weapons to trouble spots and criminal gangs around the world.
As a result, he is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people.
But should have been incarcerated in the USA until 2029.
