Brittney Griner in Texas medical facility as political fallout over swap continues

Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who has been released from almost 10 months of detention in Russia in a prisoner swap with the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, is undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.

As the WNBA and Olympic champion gradually re-enters US society, the political fallout over her high-profile prisoner exchange with Bout continued. So too did the ongoing plight of other Americans held by Russia not included in the Kremlin deal, notably the discharged marine Paul Whelan who has served almost four years of a 16-year sentence for alleged spying.

Top Republicans have been using similar arguments to attack Biden. The former secretary of state under Donald Trump, Mike Pompeo, told Fox News Sunday that Vladimir Putin and other hostile regimes including Iran would be encouraged.

Carstens also gave new details of how he had met Griner as part of the prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi and then escorted her back to the US. On the 18-hour flight, she had spent about 12 hours just talking, including about her Russian ordeal.

Griner was sentenced to 9.5 years in prison after she was arrested at an airport in Russia and accused of carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil in them. The basketball star said she had made a mistake in packing the canisters and presented evidence that she had been prescribed the cannabis as a pain treatment.

The claim cannot be independently verified. Griner has not commented, and edited video footage released by Russian state media appears to have been cut at precisely the moment that any direct encounter between the two individuals would have taken place.