Notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout arrived in Russia on Thursday, local media reported, after he was exchanged in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner after months of painstaking negotiations.
A plane carrying Bout arrived in Moscow after it departed from Abu Dhabi, where the swap that was approved personally by U.S. President Joe Biden took place, Interfax news agency said, citing an airport traffic controller.
Griner arrived in the United Arab Emirates' capital by private plane from Moscow as Bout was flown in on a private plane from Washington.
The two could be seen, in a video released by Russia's TASS news agency, being escorted past each other on the tarmac on the way to planes that would fly them home.
Griner, dressed in a red jacket and dark trousers, had her back to the camera. Bout embraced a Russian official who greeted him and smiled broadly as he was led away.
"Don't worry, everything is OK, I love you very much," he told his mother Raisa in comments broadcast by state television. He spoke to his family when his plane made a refueling stop in Russia.
Aboard the plane, a nurse took his temperature and checked his blood pressure.
He was expected to receive a hero's welcome at home.
Widely known abroad as the "Merchant of Death," the 55-year-old Bout was accused of arming rebels in some of the world's bloodiest conflicts.
He was arrested in a U.S. sting operation in Thailand in 2008, extradited to the U.S. and sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in prison.
A former Soviet air force officer, Bout gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa.
Earlier on Thursday, Bout's mother thanked President Vladimir Putin for her son's release.
The release happened "thanks to our president," Raisa said in televised remarks.
"I am so grateful. A low maternal bow to the Russian foreign ministry with Lavrov Sergei Viktorovich at its helm," she said.
She said she was also grateful to "kind people" in the U.S., thanking them for having "faith."
"You cannot say that all of them are evil," she added.
His wife Alla said Bout's release was a "true New Year's gift."
She also said Bout planned to open an exhibition of his paintings in Saint Petersburg in April.
The exchange comes as tensions soar between Moscow and Washington over Russia's military assault in Ukraine.
Russia's Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkova praised the arms dealer as a "wonderful man who has become a victim of American insinuations."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the country's diplomats were receiving messages of support from "people in Russia and abroad."
"Incredible!" Zakharova said on messaging app Telegram. "They are thanking the country."
