<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The US and Russia have agreed to exchange jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, held in an American prison for 12 years.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Griner was held at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil.</div><div><br></div><div>By the summer the Biden administration had proposed a prisoner exchange, aware Moscow had long sought Bout's release.</div><div><br></div><div>Viktor Bout sold arms to warlords and rogue governments, becoming one of the world's most wanted men.</div><div><br></div><div>Dubbed the "merchant of death" for gun-running in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian's exploits inspired the 2005 Hollywood film Lord of War, which was loosely based on his life.</div><div><br></div><div>His secretive career was brought to an end by an elaborate US sting in 2008, when he was arrested at a hotel in the Thai capital Bangkok, to the anger of the Russian government.</div><div><br></div><div>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. - BBC</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div><div><br></div>