A new video showing Brittney Griner's reaction as she's informed that she will be flying to the United States is garnering attention on the internet as fans are glad she's finally able to leave Russia.

Yesterday (December 8), it was announced that the US basketball star had been freed from Russian detention in a "prisoner swap" between the two countries.

Approved by President Joe Biden, the swap saw the 32-year-old released from prison after she was originally arrested at an airport in Moscow back in February for possessing cannabis oil. Griner was returning to Russia to finish her overseas season there when the arrest took place.

In order to secure her release, the US swapped notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, after holding him for 12 years.

American basketball player Brittney Griner has returned to the US. Credit: Sipa US / AlamyIn the new video, a Russian interviewer using a translator app asks Griner what her mood is.

"Happy," she replies.

"Do you know where are you heading to?" the interviewer then asks.

"No," Griner says. "I don’t know."

"You’re flying back home," the interviewer says.

"To the U.S.?" Griner asks.

"To the U.S.," the person replies while the basketball star can be seen smiling. "Everything will be fine."

Watch the moment below:

Fans took to the comments to express their relief following the news.

"She looks like she does not believe them. My heart breaks for her. So glad she is coming home," wrote one user.

"This is making me so sad. She look like she really been thru so much" (sic), another added.

Credit: Twitter

Credit: TwitterOthers were pointing out that the 32-year-old looks very different from how she did before.

"It breaks my heart they cut off her locs. Of course it's what happens when you’re incarcerated but the way it’s cut for how long she was in shows they were forceful and cruel with it," commented another Twitter user, while someone else expressed their anger at the decision writing: "Did they make Britney cut the locs off?" along with an angry face emoji.

Credit: TwitterAs per the Guardian, President Joe Biden formally announced Griner's release from the White House.

"Moments ago, standing together with her wife Cherelle in the Oval Office, I spoke with Brittney Griner," Biden said. "She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home after months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances. Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along."

He then took to Twitter to confirm that he had spoken to Griner following her release, telling his followers: "Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home."

Featured Image Credit: Chris Poss / Alamy

It has just been announced that US basketballer Brittney Griner has been freed in a prisoner swap between the US and Russia.

Approved by President Joe Biden, the swap saw the 32-year-old released from prison after she was originally arrested in Moscow airport back in February for possessing cannabis oil. Griner was returning to Russia to finish her overseas season there when the detention took place.

In order to secure her release, the US swapped notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout after holding him for 12 years.

Bout was arrested in 2008 after a long and elaborate mission by US authorities after becoming one of the world's most wanted men. As per BBC News, "he was extradited two years later and has spent the past 12 years languishing in an American jail for conspiring to support terrorists and kill Americans."

According to ESPN, the United States had been working hard to try to negotiate for Griner's freedom.

Her fellow teammates as well as other famous athletes have been campaigning for her throughout the year, with basketball star, Stephen Curry giving public support to the WNBA star on her 32nd birthday saying: "We hope that she comes home soon, and that everybody's doing their part to get her home."

President Joe Biden confirmed that he had spoken to Griner following her release, telling his followers: "Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home."

Griner had been detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport in February after officials found she was carrying vaporizer cartridges allegedly containing hash oil after she had been prescribed medicinal cannabis in Arizona, where it is legal. The substance is however illegal in Russia.

The WNBA athlete is a two-time Olympic gold medalist but has spent the past nine months behind bars after a Russian court rejected an appeal against her nine-year jail sentence.

Griner's lawyer Alexander Boykov had opened up to People magazine in October about Griner's life behind bars at the Moscow Legal Center.

Boykov revealed that the WNBA star has very little freedom, saying: "They go to sleep around 10:00 PM, and that's when the lights turn off and the television's turned off," adding that inmates are "not allowed to sleep" outside of the prison's allotted hours.

Day-to-day activities would include "watching television, they prepare themselves food, they read, and that's basically it," however, the athlete was not able to exercise and train as much as she would want to behind bars.

Boykov revealed: "There's no gym, no runway, no basketball court," adding that Griner "goes for a walk" and "does some exercises" - but what she was allowed to do in the prison was extremely limited.

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The coach for the women's NBA team Phoenix Mercury has questioned why there wasn't more of a buzz as Brittney Griner made her big return to the sport.

The 32-year-old professional basketball player has been notably absent from the sport following her widely-publicized arrest and subsequent detainment in Russia last year.

Griner was originally detained at an airport in Moscow in February 2022 for possession of cannabis oil. At the time, she had been returning to Russia to finish her overseas season there when the arrest took place. In order to secure her release, the US swapped notorious terrorist Viktor Bout, who had been in a US prison for over a decade.

Following the success of the prisoner swap, Griner was able to return back home to the US just before Christmas in December last year.

Just last month Griner was finally able to participate in her first media appearance since being released, where she described her 10 months in Russian custody. "You know, I'm no stranger to hard times. Just digging deep honestly, you're going to be faced with adversities throughout your life - this was a pretty big one," she recalled, adding that she "relied" on her "hard work" to get through the ordeal.

"I know this sounds so small, but you know, dying in practice and just hard workouts, you find a way to just grind it out. Put your head down and keep moving," she added, also stating that she made sure she never stood still while in prison in Russia. "That was my thing... never get too focused on the now."

Speaking of the lessons she learned during her detainment, Griner said: "Life is short. Things can change at the stroke of a match. Appreciate every moment. Don't take it for granted, but it's so true. Once something like this happens to you, when people say that it hits home, it hits closer to you."

Given the hardship she's experienced, it was only natural that the Phoenix Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard expected there would be much more support for Griner when she eventually made her return to the court.

Nygaard spoke at the press conference after the Mercurys' 94-71 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks, calling out the noticeable absence of fans at the game, which took place at the Crypto.com arena. "Come on now, LA," Nygaard told reporters. "We didn't sell out the arena for [Griner]? Like, I expected more, to be honest. It was great, it was loud. But how was it not a sellout? How was it not a sellout?"

Griner told reporters that, while she was happy to get her head back in the game, she had been disappointed with her performance. "It was nice to be back on the court and in a real game and everything. The love from the fans who came out was amazing and the players. I definitely felt it and I felt it when I was there (Russia)," she said, via Fox News. "It was nice, but performance-wise, it wasn't good enough because I couldn't help the team with a dub."

The arena hosting the game has a capacity of around 19,068, but a crowd of only 10,396 people turned up. According to Fox, the Sparks' average attendance is more than 5,600. One person who did come to see Griner play was Vice President Kamala Harris, who met up with the team in the locker rooms ahead of their game.

"I know that was rough and that was so difficult for you. A team is a team, that's family," Harris said to the players, per CBS.

Griner will return home to Phoenix, Arizona, as her team prepares to battle it out against the Chicago Sky this Sunday (May 28).

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The US has demanded that Russia allow consular access to WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been detained there since mid-February on suspicion of drug possession, The Associated Press reports.

The demand was made on Friday after the 31-year-old was hit with allegations of drug smuggling and imprisoned as a result.

In a statement, the State Department wrote: “We are closely engaged on this case and in frequent contact with Brittney Griner’s legal team. We insist the Russian government provide consular access to all US citizen detainees in Russia, including those in pre-trial detention, as Brittney Griner is.”

The statement continued: “We have repeatedly asked for consular access to these detainees and have consistently been denied access.”

The Phoenix Mercury star was detained by authorities after arriving at an airport in Moscow in February, after a search of her luggage allegedly revealed vape cartridges that contained an oil which derives from cannabis. This could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. It was reported on Thursday that a court had extended Griner's pretrial detention to May 19.

A member of a Russian state-backed prison monitoring group said Griner was handling her imprisonment well.

Ekaterina Kalugina spoke to The Associated Press on Friday, telling the outlet that she had visited Griner some days earlier at the pretrial detention facility outside of Moscow, where she's being detained. Kalugina said she spoke to her with the assistance of a fellow inmate who speaks both Russian and English and helped translate.

“Her physical condition is fine, she’s holding up fine, and I’d even say that she is fairly calm and isn’t anxious,” Kalugina said.

Kalugina said Griner is being detained at the facility where an Israeli woman, Naama Issachar, was held before Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned her in 2020.

Russian authorities allegedly found hashish in Issachar's luggage while she was transferring between flights in Moscow on her way from from India to Israel, at the same airport where Griner was detained.

Issachar was found guilty and sentenced to 7 and a half years in prison before she was released after spending nine months behind bars.

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Dennis Rodman has announced his plans to go to Russia in an effort to get Brittney Griner freed.

Speaking to NBC News at a restaurant late last week, he revealed he'd been given permission to go to Russia "to help that girl," and would try to go in the coming week.

The news comes in the wake of Griner's arrest and subsequent detainment in Russia after customs officials discovered hashish oil in her luggage.

The professional basketball star and two-time Olympic gold medalist was then sentenced to nine years in prison in the country as its invasion of Ukraine continues.

Griner's detainment was highly publicized over the past few months, with President Joe Biden even offering Russia a prisoner exchange in order to secure her release. Those talks are still believed to be ongoing as the basketball star begins the process of appealing her sentence, per the Guardian.

The Biden administration has expressed concern that Rodman, who actually needs no permission to travel to Russia (only a visa), will likely create more issues rather than fix them.

"It's public information that the administration has made a significant offer to the Russians and anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to complicate and hinder release efforts," a spokesperson for the Biden administration stated.

Rodman has a history of taking diplomacy matters into his own hands, famously striking up a controversial friendship with North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, AP reports.

The 61-year-old former Chicago Bulls player has even visited the totalitarian East Asian nation at least four times, giving Jong-un a series of unusual gifts including a Where's Waldo? book.

Per Time, Rodman actually credited himself with the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary who was accused of attempting to overthrow the North Korean government.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, US nationals have been issued a travel advisory by the State Department, strongly discouraging travel to Russia.

"Do not travel to Russia due to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials, the singling out of US citizens in Russia by Russian government security officials including for detention, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, Covid-19-related restrictions, and terrorism," the travel advisory read.

Despite this travel advisory and multiple sanctions the US has imposed against Russia, Rodman actually needs no "permission" to travel there.

Regardless, it seems that the NBA Hall of Famer has no qualms about going to Russia, given that he has said previously: "I know Putin too well."

Featured image credit: Sipa USA / Alamy