[News] Brittney Griner released from Russian detention

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Viktor Bout, the US-traded Russian arms dealer, notified his wife and mother that he is in Russia during a phone call on Thursday, according to state broadcaster 24 and news agency TASS.

During the phone call, Bout reassured his relatives that he was fine. According to the broadcast, a special aircraft carrying Bout made a stop in the Russian city of Makhachkala for refueling.

How the exchange happened: The prisoner exchange was completed successfully at Abu Dhabi Airport on Thursday, the Russian foreign ministry said earlier Thursday.

The statement confirmed that Abu Dhabi received WNBA star Brittney Griner by private plane from Moscow after the Russian authorities released her, in conjunction with the reception of Bout on a private plane from Washington after the US authorities released him, in the presence of specialists from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.The risk of Russia using nuclear weapons in the war with Ukraine has lessened in response to international pressure, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a new interview.

The remarks, published Thursday by Germany's Funke media group, were later posted by Scholz on Twitter.

He was responding to a question about whether the threat of nuclear escalation had been averted. 

“For the time being, we have put a stop to it," Scholz said. For now, Russia has “stopped threatening to use nuclear weapons. In response to the international community marking a red line,” he continued.
Moscow voiced a different tone earlier this week: On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the threat of nuclear war is increasing and stopped short of pledging that Russia would not be the first to resort to nuclear weapons in a conflict.

“As for the idea that Russia wouldn’t use such weapons first under any circumstances, then it means we wouldn’t be able to be the second to use them either – because the possibility to do so in case of an attack on our territory would be very limited,” he said.

But Putin said he viewed the Russian nuclear arsenal primarily as a deterrent, rather than a provocation.

"We have a strategy … namely, as a defense, we consider weapons of mass destruction, nuclear weapons – it is all based around the so-called retaliatory strike,” he said. “That is, when we are struck, we strike in response.”

More from the interview: Scholz was also asked if Germany supports French President Emmanuel Macron's openness to providing security guarantees for Moscow in the case of peace negotiations. The chancellor said the priority was for Russia "to end the war immediately and withdraw its troops."

Scholz, who spoke to the Russian president last week, added that ''we have to talk to each other despite this terrible situation. So that Putin also hears our point of view again and again.''

CNN's Katharina Krebs contributed to this report.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-12-08-22/index.html