Brittney Griner, a professional American basketball player and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained in Russia in February 2022 after Russian authorities found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

The substance, legal in the U.S. but illegal in Russia, led to drug smuggling charges.

In August 2022, Griner was convicted and sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony, a harsh punishment amidst escalating tensions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Her defense pointed to her medical prescription for cannabis oil and lack of criminal intent, but the court rejected these arguments.

The U.S. State Department declared her “wrongfully detained” and asserted that her detention was politically motivated, a position rejected by Kremlin spokespersons who claimed it was a legal matter [0ff6fb27-d79f-45d1-a9c1-4d503aaa675e_225436112; 72181213-8ee2-4322-b6bb-8a81cc548183_272313099; 4422e4b5-56a0-4873-b526-4cbc634b153a_541956905].

The political implications of Griner’s arrest were significant.

She became a high-profile “political pawn” in U.S.-Russia relations, with Russia reportedly seeking to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death” serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. Bout’s lawyer and Russian officials said securing his release was Russia’s top priority.

The U.S. government actively pursued negotiations, including proposals for prisoner exchanges involving Griner, Bout, and Paul Whelan, another American detainee in Russia convicted of espionage.

These negotiations were complicated by the broader geopolitical context of Russia’s war in Ukraine, sanctions, and deteriorating diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia

[4164b225-466d-4e02-a878-39a1b2e71b44_705754891; 32944d88-35fe-46a8-b240-1dcb8d143d62_766118841; 4ae82475-d396-4dcc-a8b3-3012c4a5c78e_946590426].

Griner’s experience in the Russian penal colony was described as harsh and isolating.

Conditions in such facilities can be severe, with reports of overcrowding, limited medical treatment, and psychological trauma.

Former prisoners noted the difficulty of navigating prison life without knowledge of Russian law or language, increasing vulnerability.

Despite these adversities, Griner maintained hope, bolstered by support campaigns and personal resilience.

The WNBA and its players also mobilized awareness and advocacy efforts to bring attention to her plight .

The U.S. government, under President Biden, prioritized Griner’s release through diplomatic channels, publicly condemning her detention and vowing persistent efforts.

Biden engaged with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and the Mercury team while facing criticism over the perceived slowness of action.

Ultimately, in December 2022, after sustained negotiations, Griner was released in a high-profile prisoner swap, exchanged for Viktor Bout.

The swap drew mixed reactions: jubilation from Griner’s supporters and criticism from some U.S. politicians who opposed releasing Bout and felt Paul Whelan was unfairly excluded [0b74e1f9-0567-4d34-982f-dac6a2d9dc79_11081054; 530d83be-f15c-4cbb-84ed-9a507a8e94fa_323326971; a2aabb70-21c9-4e44-8ce3-aa8abb43ace4_55045465].

Following her release, Griner returned to the United States and resumed training with the Phoenix Mercury, her WNBA team since 2013.

She signed a one-year contract to rejoin the league for the 2023 season.

Observers noted her mental and physical resilience, as well as the uplifting spirit she brought back to the team and the wider WNBA community.

Griner’s return highlighted ongoing issues in women's professional basketball regarding lower salaries that compel players to seek off-season work abroad, often in risky environments.

Her detention and release have prompted calls for improved safety measures for players and have accelerated conversations about league conditions and player support [9aeaca7f-0db8-4e55-bd35-99ce9c9fa90c_120346448; 91cae6dc-ec68-4d87-86c3-9f0354e39748_244734632; 463b03f3-cb63-4917-8d69-b74d9dad23b9_437354008].

Throughout the ordeal, issues of identity and representation were prominent.

Griner, a Black, openly gay woman, symbolized intersections of sports, gender, race, and politics.

Some commentators discussed how these factors influenced public and political attention to her case.

The advocacy by LGBTQ+ groups and Black community leaders was a significant element in the campaigns for her release.

Griner herself, post-release, has called on supporters to help raise awareness and advocate for others wrongfully detained abroad, especially Paul Whelan, underscoring a broader struggle with political imprisonment and international diplomacy

[fa020cfe-e092-475b-ab96-43285fc40c09_532975896; 4b8702be-b620-4406-9c8a-02174ffe496b_680629056; d60d4ba8-bffe-4006-9731-5fe59cea80b4_849203550].

In conclusion, Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia and subsequent prisoner swap illuminate the complex intersections of sports, geopolitics, and identity.

Her case exemplifies how governments may utilize prominent public figures as leverage in international negotiations, while also casting light on systemic issues affecting women in sports, including pay disparities and player safety.

The ongoing efforts to support Griner and advocate for others highlight the role of activism and diplomacy in addressing wrongful detentions, with implications for future U.S.-Russia relations amid broader global tensions.

Additional detailed insights into Griner’s personal adjustment after release and her current activism are somewhat limited, indicating areas for further research.

Brittney Griner, a professional American basketball player and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained in Russia in February 2022 after Russian authorities found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

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Content: News

February 14, 2023

U.S. tells citizens to leave Russia immediately

The United States authorities have advised their citizens still residing in Russia to leave immediately.

Those who planned to travel to the eastern Europe nation were also advised to postpone such itinerary.

The advice is coming amid growing concerns over irrational and arbitrary detentions and harassment of Americans abroad.

“U.S. citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately. Exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions,” reads a top level travel alert issued by the State Department to citizens on Monday.

“Do not travel to Russia due to the unpredictable consequences of the unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials, 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, and the possibility of terrorism,” the alert stated.

The top level alert has renewed concerns about the safety of Americans still on Russian soil especially as its ongoing war with Ukraine which began February 24 2022, approaches its first anniversary.

There have been rumours that Moscow may convene its troops to launch a sinister attack to mark its first year anniversary of invading Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the warning, claiming it was “not a new thing,” Reuters quoted him to have said.

In August 2022, a Russian court sentenced U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison on drug charges after cartridges containing cannabis oil for vaping were found in her luggage.

She was later released in December 2022 in a prisoner swap between the United States and the Russian Federation. Ms Briner was exchanged for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer nicknamed the ‘Merchant of Death.’

The substance, legal in the U.S. but illegal in Russia, led to drug smuggling charges.

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Content: Basketball: Brittney Griner′s Russian detention highlights WNBA′s growing problem | Sports | German football and major international sports news | DW | 05.05.2022

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Basketball: Brittney Griner's Russian detention highlights WNBA's growing problem

The WNBA is seen as the world's best women's basketball league. However, the arrest of one of its biggest stars has highlighted problems involving time and money that are forcing players to go abroad in the off-season.

Brittney Griner is being held on drug charges in a Russian prison at present

The 2022 season of the US Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) starts this week with one of its biggest stars, Brittney Griner, still being held in a Russian jail.

The superstar center was arrested for being in possession of vape cartridges that contained cannabis oil during a flight out of Moscow in February. Though legal in the US, the substance is considered illegal in Russia.

The US State Department has spoken out against Griner's detention, a situation complicated by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In doing so they promised to "provide appropriate support" ahead of her next court date on May 19.

Griner, 31, has won the WNBA title and Most Valuable Player award with the Phoenix Mercury; two Olympic gold medals and two FIBA Basketball World Cups with USA Basketball Women's National Team.

Yet under the WNBA's salary cap, she earns a fraction of the eyewatering multi-million-dollar deals the likes of Stephen Curry and LeBron James command in the NBA. As a result Griner has spent time in Russia where she has racked up four EuroLeague titles with UMMC Ekaterinburg and a healthy pay cheque.

Uncapped salaries?

Since being founded in 1996, the WNBA has not had the audience to command premium rights deals from television networks. The result is that players, most of whom don't hold Griner's superstar status, are now being forced to move abroad in the off-season to financially set themselves up for the future.

The WNBA season runs from May to September/October with the off-season spent either resting, working in US media or going to play in countries like Australia, China, France and Russia.

While the salary cap in the WNBA sees the highest earners command a salary of $228,094 (€215,067) per season, playing abroad is more lucrative because players can negotiate higher wages.

In Russia, many of the stars can earn upwards of three times the salary, with Griner reportedly earning up to a million dollars during her stints with UMMC Ekaterinburg.

This is all made possible by Russian oligarch owners, like Andrei Kozitsyn and Iskander Makhmudov, who enable teams to provide players with lavish lifestyles, cash gifts and travel accomodations. In contrast, the WNBA recently fined the New York Liberty for creating an unfair advantage after the club chartered private flights for its team.

Russian clubs have also proven willing to go the extra mile as far back as 2015 when Diana Taurasi, the 2009 WNBA MVP, was paid $1.5 million (€1.42 million) by Griner's Russian employers in Ekaterinburg to skip the WNBA season entirely. Taurasi admitted it was a deal that her agent advised "would be financially irresponsible" to pass up.

The inevitable overseas lure

When Evelyn Akhator was selected third overall pick in the WNBA Draft in 2017 by the Dallas Wings, she knew that it was just one step in what she hopes will be a long-lasting professional career.

Evelyn Akhator say that Russia is 'where the real money is' for women basketball players

"As soon as I signed with an agent, they started to look for jobs overseas for me. Unless I told them otherwise, I knew I was going to play overseas," Akhator told DW. "That is where the real money is."

Akhator spent one season with the Wings before leaving to join Dynamo Novosibirsk in Russia where she played against Griner. She told DW of a lonely experience without family, friends or people who looked like her in an environment where being targeted by racist remarks was common on the streets.

The silver lining was that she was able to earn more than double what her rookie contract offered in the WNBA and, since then, she has competed in Turkey, Spain and is currently playing in France with the Flammes Carolo.

By comparison, the season in France is longer than the WNBA's, meaning she can stay active and negotiate a better salary. For her and many others, opportunites like this offer the chance to save up for a future after basketball.

Plugging the overseas loophole

The WNBA's 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the WNBA Players Association wants to make it more difficult for players to go overseas during the off-season.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert wants players to "prioritize" the league instead of playing abroad, The main reason being that leagues in Europe usually end in April, which affects players when they report back for pre-season training camps that same month. DW asked the WNBA and the Players' Association for comment on potential future changes to the season schedule, but received no response.

Free Brittney: Griner's detention could make other players rethink Russian money

From 2023, those who report late to camp will forfeit 1% of their base salary, while players who fail to arrive before the opening night will forfeit their season's pay. Those measures will get stronger in 2024, when players who fail to arrive before the first day of training will forgo being a part of the team.

Those harsher measures are offset by promises of higher salaries as the WNBA hopes to raise the salary cap for their top players to $500,000 (€471,445) thanks to increased marketing opportunities.

But with the war in Ukraine and the sanctions on Russia ongoing, the appetite for going overseas is expected to reduce. The WNBA announced that Griner's initials and jersey number (42) will be featured along the sideline of all 12 WNBA courts, but as her family and friends await her return from Russia, her arrest is forcing players to rethink. Is the money worth it?

In the future, safety overseas will be key when players ask their agents for work, but Akhator doesn't believe that Griner's arrest would deter WNBA players entirely. "I think it is better for players to have a longer season and get paid six, seven-figure [salaries], I think that would really help."

Edited by: James Thorogood

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In August 2022, Griner was convicted and sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony, a harsh punishment amidst escalating tensions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Donald Trump Jr goes on vile rant attacking Brittney Griner after Russia release

Donald Trump Jr – son of the former President – has lashed out at WBNA star Brittney Griner, following her release from a Russian penal colony this week.

While many people shared their joy at her freedom, Trump Jr instead criticised the release and attacked her sporting skills.

He also made a string of jabs at President Joe Biden, who announced Griner’s release on Thursday (8 December), which was made in exchange for Russian criminal Viktor Bout, who was being held in the United States.

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Trump Jr referred to Griner as “an awful America hating WNBA player”, and in a series of tweets, attacked both President Biden’s negotiations for the queer WNBA star and Griner’s general allegiance to the nation.

Her release was celebrated by friends, teammates and celebrities.

Griner’s release drew much wider celebration on Thursday when Biden announced she was free and on her way back to the US, ending nearly 10 months of detainment in Russia on drug charges.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony in August for possession of a small amount of cannabis oil.

Where Trump Jr railed against Griner’s release, the voices of the LGBTQ+ community rang loudly.

“Britney Griner’s long awaited release is a relief for her wife, teammates, fans and all in the LGBTQ+ community who recognized the extreme danger she faced as an out gay Black woman detained in Putin’s Russia,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.

“Britney’s wife Cherelle never gave up fighting for her safe return, and president Biden and the State Department never wavered in their commitment to the Griners and the LGBTQ+ community on Britney’s behalf. We can’t wait to welcome Britney home.”

Activists on Twitter were quick to point out the efforts of Black queer feminists toward Griner’s release, hoping voices from the grassroots are not drowned out by diplomacy.

Griner’s release was most poignantly celebrated by her wife Cherelle, who, speaking in the Oval Office, expressed gratitude and overwhelm for the reunion of her family.

“So over the last nine months, you all have been so privy to one of the darkest moments of my life, and so today I’m just standing here overwhelmed with emotions, but the most important emotion that I have right now is just sincere gratitude for president Biden and his entire administration,” she said.

Griner landed in the US on Friday (9 December) at a Texas airbase.

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Her defense pointed to her medical prescription for cannabis oil and lack of criminal intent, but the court rejected these arguments.

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A Russian court has sentenced Brittney Griner to 9 years in prison on drug charges

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Guilty was the verdict in Moscow today, and the sentence was severe. A Russian court gave American basketball star Brittney Griner nine years in prison. This was right after the judge convicted her of drug smuggling and possession over the small amount of hash oil she says she accidentally brought into the country. The sentence was just shy of the 9 1/2 years that the prosecution requested. All of this plays out against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and negotiations between the U.S. and Russia for a possible prisoner swap. NPR's Charles Maynes was at the courthouse and has our story.

CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: It's been six full months since Brittney Griner was first detained while rushing to catch a flight at a Moscow airport as she arrived for Russian League play. Yet it took just one afternoon at a Moscow courthouse for the judge to rush through closing arguments and issue her verdict.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).

MAYNES: As Griner sat in the cage listening through an interpreter, the judge said the basketball star had knowingly possessed and transported cannabis oil into Russia and should face nine years in prison as a result.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).

MAYNES: "Do you understand the ruling," said the judge to a stone-faced Griner, who responded...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BRITTNEY GRINER: Yes, I understand, Your Honor.

MAYNES: With the ruling, the judge rejected Griner's explanation that the substance, less than a gram of hash oil, was legally obtained in the U.S. through a doctor to treat chronic pain or that she had never intentionally violated Russian law, a point Griner emphasized in a final plea ahead of the ruling.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GRINER: I made an honest mistake. And I hope that, in your ruling, that it doesn't end my life here.

MAYNES: She also expressed remorse that her actions had embarrassed her fans and teammates at her Russian club, UMMC of Yekaterinburg, where she's played for years.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GRINER: Again, I want to apologize to my teammates and the organization, UMMC, for any damage that I may have done to them. I never intended on hurting them. This is my second home, and all I wanted to do is just win championships and make them proud.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).

MAYNES: Following the ruling, Griner's lawyers said they would appeal a decision that defied sentencing norms even for Russians, who would themselves receive lighter sentences or possibly even probation. The defense team also expressed frustration that the court completely ignored their arguments for leniency based on Griner's contribution to Russian women's basketball, as well as procedural violation of Griner's rights during her arrest. After the hearing, Griner's lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, acknowledged that while her client did not expected miracles, the shock of a nine-year sentence still lingered with all of them.

MARIA BLAGOVOLINA: We feel disappointment. You know, when we saw Brittney, I think it was Tuesday. And we told her, see you on Thursday. And she said, see you on doomsday. So looks like she was right.

MAYNES: It appears a legal case that has unfolded against the backdrop of plummeting U.S.-Russian relations over the conflict in Ukraine now moves entirely into the political arena. President Biden immediately issued a statement condemning the ruling. And outside the courthouse, the U.S. Embassy's deputy chief of mission, Elizabeth Rood, said the U.S. government would keep fighting to free Griner and other detained Americans in Russia.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ELIZABETH ROOD: This is a miscarriage of justice. The U.S. Department of State has determined that Ms. Griner was wrongfully detained. Nothing in today's decision changes that determination.

MAYNES: The White House has already acknowledged it made a substantial proposal to Russia to free Griner and another American, former Marine Paul Whelan. It's reported that the U.S. would be willing to exchange convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, currently in a prison in Illinois. The Kremlin has suggested closed-door negotiations might yield results once Griner's trial was over but said the talks shouldn't be public. But now that that's the case, and Grinder's nine-year sentence a reality, the price of what Moscow seeks in these negotiations may very well have gone up. Charles Maynes, NPR News, Moscow. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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The U.S. State Department declared her “wrongfully detained” and asserted that her detention was politically motivated, a position rejected by Kremlin spokespersons who claimed it was a legal matter [0ff6fb27-d79f-45d1-a9c1-4d503aaa675e_225436112; 72181213-8ee2-4322-b6bb-8a81cc548183_272313099; 4422e4b5-56a0-4873-b526-4cbc634b153a_541956905].

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Russian court sentences Brittney Griner to 9 years, raising pressure on Biden

A Russian court Thursday sentenced U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in a penal colony after convicting her on a drug charge, a harsh penalty that keeps her fate entwined with the geopolitical showdown over the war in Ukraine and ramps up already intense pressure on President Joe Biden to win her release.

The U.S. government contends that she is among several Americans who have been “wrongfully detained” by Russia, used as bargaining chips in the increasingly hostile relationship between Moscow and Washington. The Biden administration has offered a prisoner swap involving Griner, but Russian officials said it was premature to discuss a deal while her case was underway.

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Now that the trial is concluded, Biden faces a difficult choice between standing firm on his proposal to trade for Griner and another American, Paul Whelan, or sweetening the offer somehow, with either position liable to draw domestic criticism.

Meanwhile the Kremlin can use them as leverage, with no incentive to resolve the cases quickly. Griner’s supporters, voicing horror at the verdict and sentence, are clamoring for the president to do something, while the administration is wary of giving in to Russian tactics it has all but labeled blackmail.

“My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible,” Biden said in a statement after the verdict.

Griner, 31, one of her sport’s biggest global stars, sat mostly expressionless, eyes downcast, leaning her long frame toward the bars of the defendant’s box in a cramped courtroom outside Moscow to hear as the words of the judge, Anna Sotnikova, were quietly translated for her. She had already pleaded guilty, and conviction is all but certain in Russian courts, so the verdict was a foregone conclusion; the real question was about sentencing.

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The answer was devastating. The sentence was near the 10-year maximum for her conviction for attempting to smuggle narcotics into the country, based on two vape cartridges containing hashish oil found in Griner’s luggage when she arrived in February, a week before President Vladimir Putin sent Russian forces to Ukraine.

She and her legal team had hoped for a more lenient penalty based on her guilty plea, her statement that she had not meant to take the cartridges to Russia, and testimony that she used the substance legally in the United States to manage pain.

“I made an honest mistake, and I hope that in your ruling that it doesn’t end my life here,” she said before the sentencing.

She told the court that while she took responsibility for her actions, “I had no intent to break Russian law.” She said that after recovering from a bout of COVID, she had packed hurriedly to rejoin the Russian team she plays for in the WNBA offseason, and had accidentally left the cartridges in her luggage.

Griner’s defense team called the ruling “absolutely unreasonable,” said the court had “completely ignored all the evidence of the defense, and most importantly, the guilty plea,” and vowed to appeal. Elizabeth Rood, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, attended the court session and called the result “a miscarriage of justice.”

Russian officials have insisted that Griner’s case is simply the justice system running its course, with no political overtones — a claim that their U.S. counterparts and many Western analysts dismissed as absurd.

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William Pomeranz, a Russia expert and acting director of the Kennan Institute, a research group in Washington, noted that Griner was sentenced not to a prison but to a penal colony, which tends to mean a more remote location — many are in Siberia — and harsher conditions.

“She’s probably going to go to a penal colony that’s in the middle of Russia where she won’t know anybody,” he added. “They won’t be able to come and visit. Penal colonies can sometimes be very severe. It will be a tremendous test of her mental state if she ends up going to a penal colony.”

The United States has few options, he said. “It will just depend on the Russians and how fast they want to make a deal.”

Fellow basketball players, male and female, and basketball executives took to social media to voice support for Griner and grief at the verdict. Griner’s team, the Phoenix Mercury, said in a statement: “We remain heartbroken for her, as we have every day for nearly six months. We remain grateful to and confident in the public servants working every day to return her to her family and us.”

With Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the indiscriminate destruction it has caused, relations between Washington and Moscow are more confrontational and bitter than they have been in decades. The United States has rallied the West to send arms and other aid to Ukraine, and to punish Moscow with economic sanctions, looking for opportunities to ratchet up the pressure.

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The two sides have made prisoner exchanges before, most recently in April, when Russia released Trevor Reed, an American held on what his family said was a bogus assault charge, in return for a Russian pilot convicted in the United States of cocaine trafficking charges. But rarely have proposed swaps come amid such tension, or involved anyone as prominent as Griner.

In a sign of how high the stakes are for Washington, Griner’s fate was among the topics discussed last Friday by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in their first direct conversation since before the invasion.

The Biden administration has offered to trade Griner and Whelan for Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence for a 2011 conviction on a federal charge of conspiring to sell weapons to people posing as terrorists intent on killing Americans. Whelan, detained in Russia since 2018, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years.

Russia made an unspecified “bad faith” counteroffer, the White House said Monday, which U.S. officials said they did not consider serious.

John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, told reporters Thursday, “I don’t think it would be helpful to Brittney or to Paul for us to talk more publicly about where we are in the talks and what the president might or might not be willing to do.”

“Conversations are ongoing at various levels,” he added.

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If Biden sticks to his initial offer, he could face accusations of not doing enough.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, and other supporters have mounted an effective public campaign to pressure the president to win her release. Supporters worry about her treatment in a country where anti-American and anti-gay vitriol are deeply embedded in popular views and official propaganda. Images of a grim-faced Griner being led, handcuffed, in and out of court, towering over her armed guards, have become commonplace in U.S. and international media.

The administration could make a more attractive offer, but U.S. officials already worry that deals for prisoners could encourage hostile foreign governments to detain Americans on trumped-up charges in exchange for concessions like freeing their own wrongdoers. Some Republicans have already complained that Biden’s existing offer creates such an incentive.

A 6-foot-9 center, Griner won a college national championship with Baylor in 2012, a WNBA championship with the Mercury in 2014, Olympic gold medals with the U.S. team at the 2016 and 2020 games, and four EuroLeague championships with the Russian team UMMC Yekaterinburg. Like many players in the WNBA, where salaries are much lower than in the NBA, Griner — who also played one season for a professional team in China — has played overseas to supplement her income.

The political implications of Griner’s arrest were significant.

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Content: Britney Grenier ’ s trial could end in conviction, experts say
More than four months after her first arrest, WNBA star Britney Greiner is expected to appear in the Russian courtroom on Friday to begin a drug trial that legal experts say will almost certainly end with a conviction despite the hype in the United States for her release.
“It ’ s mostly biased because the Russian judicial system says they can ’ t be tried until the defendant is found guilty, ” said William Pomerantz, acting director of the Kennan Institute and an expert on Russian law.
There is no real idea or expectation that the accused is innocent.
There is no presumption of innocence. ”
Russian customs officials said they found e-cigarette cartridges with traces of cannabis oil in Griner ’ s luggage as it passed through a checkpoint at an airport near Moscow on February 17.
Colony.
Grenier ’ s lawyer Alexander Boykov said Monday that he expects the trial to begin on Friday and last up to two months.
“At this point, we don ’ t know what evidence they have, ” Pomerance said.
“We don ’ t know how many volumes of evidence they want to read in the registry, but usually in such cases they are huge and significant. ”
Greiner ’ s arrest was an important geopolitical moment during Russia ’ s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and amid Russia ’ s strained diplomatic relations with the United States and some European countries.
From the very beginning of Greiner ’ s arrest, his supporters feared that Russia would use him during a global conflict.
In May, the U.S. State Department confirmed these concerns by declaring Greiner “unjustly detained. ”
As a result, responsibility for this case was transferred to the Government Office, which directs and coordinates U.S. diplomatic and strategic efforts on hostage taking abroad.
Britney has been classified as unjustly detained since April 29, meaning that the US government has established that she is being used as a political tool and, as a result, is negotiating her release regardless of the trial.
This was reported by Agent Greener Lindsay Kagawa Kolas in an email on Wednesday.
“So our expectations, including Britney ’ s family, remain that President Biden will make a deal to bring her home. ”
Qatar-2022: World Cup leaders responded to Norway at the incendiary FIFA conference | football news
The Griner family and their supporters are increasingly turning to President Biden and the U.S. government to seek Griner ’ s release.
Kagawa Kolas recently agreed a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, signed by groups such as the National Women's Organization, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Urban League and the National Action Network.
The letter calls on the government to make a deal to release Greiner.
In April, by agreeing to a prisoner exchange, Russia released Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of endangering Russian police during an altercation.
Kimberly St. Julian-Farnon, Ph.D., said Reed ’ s deteriorating health in Russia was likely a factor in Moscow ’ s willingness to release him.
She is a student of history at the University of Pennsylvania, whose field of study is the experience of African Americans in the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Russia.
“The problem is that politically, Britney is worth a lot more in terms of prisoner trafficking than Trevor Reed, because of her profile, ” said St. Julian-Farnon, who advised the WNBA Players Association on Grenier ’ s detention.
Butt, an international arms dealer, was convicted by an American court and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Russia is also interested in the release of Roman Seleznev, a hacker who was convicted in the United States for conducting a large-scale operation to steal credit cards and personal data and sentenced to 27 years in prison.
In addition to Greiner, Russia has also detained Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage.
“This is a classic dilemma in hostage-taking cases, ” said Thomas Firestone, a former Justice Department official who worked as a lawyer in Moscow.
“If you negotiate a release, you can encourage hostage-taking in the future.
If you don ’ t, a person may never be released. ”
Polarizing “chess player ” Medvedev harbors a dark side
Jake Sullivan, Biden ’ s national security adviser, told reporters on Tuesday that he and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken had spoken in recent days with Greiner ’ s wife Cheryl Greiner.
"The United States government is actively trying to solve this problem and bring Britney home," Sullivan said.
“He enjoys the full attention of the president and all senior members of his diplomatic and national security team, ” he added.
"We are actively working to find a solution to this problem and will continue to do so without rest until Britney returns home safely."
Russia announced on Tuesday that it had barred Biden, First Lady Jill Biden and others from entering the country in response to wide-ranging sanctions.
The list includes four senators: Republican Mitch McConnell from Kentucky, Susan Collins from Maine, Ben Sass from Nebraska and Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand from New York.
"Release Britney Grenier," Sassi said in a statement.
“It doesn ’ t matter when Putin throws a tantrum and blocks Americans from entering Russia, but we have a problem when he captures an American. ”
Griner is one of the most titled basketball players in the world – a seven-time participant of the WNBA All-Star Game, a two-time Olympic champion and the first openly gay athlete to sign an advertising contract with Nike.
I went to Russia after a two-week break to play for UMMC-Yekaterinburg, the women ’ s professional basketball team.
Since then, news about Griner has been rare and has mostly been spread by Russian state media, according to the Associated Press.
But Cheryl Greiner told AP that the long-planned telephone conversation between the two had not taken place due to a logistical error at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
“I find this unacceptable and I don ’ t have confidence in our government right now, ” Cheryl Greiner told The Associated Press in late June.
“If I can ’ t trust you to call on a Saturday outside of office hours, how can I trust you to negotiate on behalf of my wife to come home? ”
How Russia and Ukraine became the heroines of the smear campaign.
In a radio interview Wednesday with Reverend Al Sharpton, who is also the founder of the National Action Network, Cheryl Greiner said she had not spoken to her wife since February but had received messages.
“She told me she was okay, ” Cheryl Grainer said of her wife ’ s letters.
She's like, "I'm fine, baby.
I'm tough.
I'm not me now.
When I get home, it'll take me a minute to recover, but I'm holding on.
I'm not gonna break until I get home.
I won't let them break me.
I know they ’ re trying, but I ’ ll do my best to keep going until I can get home. ”
Paris Hatcher was horrified to learn of the extension of Britney Grenier ’ s detention on Monday and to see a photo of Grenier circulated in Russian state media.
“She looks scared, ” said Hatcher, whose organization Black Feminist Future created the online campaign # BringBrittneyHome.
It's about dignity.
It is about human humanity.
She deserves to be in touch with her family. ”
St. Julian-Varnon said the rights of defendants in Russia are dramatically different from those of a person accused of committing a crime in the United States.
"You have no right to a jury trial," said St. Julian-Varnon.
Your lawyer has no right to call any witnesses they want.
The whole case against you and the case in your support is based on the evidence gathered by the state. ”
However, St. Julian-Varnon said she remained cautiously optimistic that Greiner could eventually be released either as a result of an exchange of prisoners or as a result of a conviction on a less serious charge and agreeing to a large fine.
“There are a lot of moving figures here, ” St. Julian-Varnon said.
“I want to be optimistic because it ’ s still her life.
It's Britney's life.
It's Cheryl's life. "

She became a high-profile “political pawn” in U.S.-Russia relations, with Russia reportedly seeking to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death” serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. Bout’s lawyer and Russian officials said securing his release was Russia’s top priority.

The U.S. government actively pursued negotiations, including proposals for prisoner exchanges involving Griner, Bout, and Paul Whelan, another American detainee in Russia convicted of espionage.

Title:

Content: Evan Gershkovich Has Been Jailed In Russia For A Full Year. What Will It Take To Free Him?

The Wall Street Journal reporter is among several Americans who have been detained in Russia over questionable charges.

Nearly a year ago, Russian authorities detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges while he was on a reporting assignment in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Gershkovich, whom the U.S. State Department has designated as wrongfully detained, was accredited by Russian authorities to work as a journalist in the country.

His detention came as chilling news to onlookers around the world, given that Gershkovich was the first American to be arrested in Russia on spying charges since the Cold War.

The Journal and the U.S. have forcefully pushed back against the accusations, urging Moscow to immediately release him. But this hasn’t happened — at least so far.

In February, a Russian court denied Gershkovich’s appeal, ruling that he must stay behind bars until at least the end of March.

“It has been extraordinarily difficult to watch these proceedings play out, each one an indefensible attempt to portray Evan as something other than what he is — a journalist,” Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour and WSJ Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker said in a statement following the decision.

But Gershkovich is not the only American journalist apparently targeted by Russia.

A Russian court in February extended the pretrial detention of Alsu Kurmasheva, an American-Russian journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the U.S. Congress.

Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague, was arrested at a Russian airport on Oct. 18, 2023, while she was preparing to return home from a visit to her sick mother. She was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, and accused of disseminating “false information” about the Russian military.

Human rights groups have denounced Kurmasheva’s arrest, and RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said she has been unfairly targeted because she is a U.S. journalist.

Paul Beckett, an assistant editor at The Wall Street Journal, described the incarcerations of Gershkovich and Kurmasheva as “frontal attacks on press freedom.”

Beckett said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s practice of detaining Americans is a “transactional exercise” to gain leverage over the U.S. When it comes to specifically putting reporters behind bars, Beckett said, Putin gets an additional advantage “because it has such a chilling effect on the flow of information and trustworthy information out of Russia.”

Following Gershkovich’s arrest on March 29, 2023, many American news organizations and outlets that employed Americans withdrew from Moscow to protect their staff. Many independent Russian media workers also fled the country.

Anton Troianovski, the Moscow bureau chief for The New York Times, is now based in Berlin, following the paper’s decision in 2022 to temporarily remove its journalists from Russia due to the risks. He told The Guardian’s Margaret Sullivan that Gershkovich’s detention shocked him both personally and professionally.

“We took it as a message that the risks were very serious for on-the-ground reporting there,” Troianovski said.

The arrests of Gershkovich and Kurmasheva have occurred during a period of heightened tensions between Russia and the U.S., amid the war in Ukraine and against the backdrop of an upcoming U.S. presidential election in which President Joe Biden is expected to face off with former President Donald Trump.

“If Putin thinks he can gain a better PR coup by waiting for a more favorable opportunity to negotiate under a Trump presidency, then he will be perfectly content to do this.”

- Precious Chatterje-Doody, senior lecturer in politics and international studies at the Open University

Precious Chatterje-Doody, a senior lecturer in politics and international studies at the Open University, said Putin will only have an incentive to release jailed Americans like Gershkovich if he “can trade them for someone worthwhile and then portray this as a victory at home.”

“If, however, the Kremlin cannot strike a deal to its liking then there will be no urgency,” Chatterje-Doody told HuffPost in an email. “Even Russian citizens imprisoned abroad are seen primarily as bargaining chips rather than as people, and if Putin thinks he can gain a better PR coup by waiting for a more favorable opportunity to negotiate under a Trump presidency, then he will be perfectly content to do this.”

The U.S. was reportedly in the process of negotiating a prisoner swap agreement that would have secured the release of Gershkovich; fellow wrongfully designated American Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine; and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in exchange for Vadim Krasikov, a former member of Russia’s state intelligence service held in Germany.

Navalny’s allies have argued that the prospect of the deal prompted Putin to have Navalny killed in prison in February, because he couldn’t bear the thought of seeing one his biggest foes walk free.

The opposition leader, who was being held in a Russian penal colony in Kharp, a city in northern Russia, collapsed after he felt unwell during a walk on Feb. 16. Emergency services did not manage to revive him, and he was pronounced dead later that day, the country’s Federal Prison System said.

Navalny’s death could also indirectly affect Americans detained in Russia.

“Navalny’s death complicates arrangements for a prisoner swap, because if it were to go ahead on anything similar to the lines that [were] reportedly discussed before his death, then it would send a clear message to Russia that the U.S. is willing to tolerate oppositionists’ deaths in custody,” Chatterje-Doody said.

The Financial Times reported that after Navalny’s death, the German government became less interested in taking part in a swap that would involve the release of Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence in the country for killing a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent in Berlin in broad daylight in 2019.

“They don’t have a poster child they’re looking to get out,” a U.S. official told the FT.

Despite this, Alex Brideau, who leads the Eurasia Group’s coverage of Ukraine, Russia’s foreign policy, and the broader Eurasia region, told HuffPost that Navalny’s death doesn’t necessarily make a deal less likely.

Brideau explained that in the past, Russia would deny it was prepared to engage in discussions with foreign governments, including the U.S., about prisoner swaps, and would characterize arrests as straightforward law enforcement operations.

The Russian leader’s approach in the past year, being more open about his willingness to enter into negotiations with the U.S. about prisoners, “does suggest that Putin is still thinking about how he can get a deal that gets him the people that he wants returned back to Russia,” Brideau said.

Whelan told CNN he found the news of Navalny’s death “extremely troubling.”

“If they are willing to face the repercussions from the world for doing in somebody like Navalny, they’re not going to think twice about doing in someone like me, and then blaming the United States for not bothering to get me back in five years,” Whelan said.

Brideau said that while U.S. officials will certainly be worried about the treatment of American prisoners like Whelan, the immediate concern following Navalny’s death “has been that there’s a risk to the Russian opposition activists and politicians who are facing these conditions.”

Whelan was arrested in 2018 on espionage charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2020. He has denied wrongdoing.

Russia in December 2022 agreed to free WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was being held in the U.S. While U.S. officials pressed for Whelan to be included in that swap, the Kremlin insisted the agreement could only involve two people, according to an unnamed source cited by NBC News.

Whelan was also left out of an earlier prisoner swap that saw former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed released in exchange for Kostantin Yaroshenko, a Russian man who was serving a 20-year sentence in the U.S. after he was convicted of drug smuggling.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson shared on X, formerly Twitter, last month prior to Navalny’s death, Putin hinted that he may be prepared to free Gershkovich if he were to reach a deal with U.S. authorities.

“I do not rule out that the person you refer to, Mr. Gershkovich, may return to his motherland,” Putin said. “We are ready to talk ... But we have to come to an agreement.”

Putin also appeared to suggest he would want Krasikov to be involved in a potential swap.

Carlson did not mention Whelan, and also failed to bring up Navalny during the nearly two-hour interview in Moscow.

“We will also work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul, Americans being unjustly detained all around the world.”

- President Joe Biden

Lawmakers across the political spectrum have called on Russia to free jailed U.S. citizens in the country.

“We will also work around the clock to bring home Evan and Paul, Americans being unjustly detained all around the world,” Biden said during his State of the Union address earlier this month.

Gershkovich’s parents attended Biden’s speech as guests of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

“By hosting Evan’s parents, Congress will shine a spotlight on the unjust detention of their son,” Johnson said in a statement at the time. “The United States must always stand for freedom of the press around the world, especially in places like Russia, where it is under assault. The Administration must bring Evan home.”

Beckett told HuffPost it is heartening to see that Gershkovich’s case has remained a “bipartisan concern,” noting the unanimous approval of a House resolution last year calling for the release of the reporter and other jailed Americans in Russia.

His colleagues are trying to keep Gershkovich’s name in the spotlight in hopes that it will aid his case in potential government-to-government talks between the Kremlin and the White House.

A series of events have been planned to mark the year since Gershkovich’s detention, including swims at Brighton Beaches around the world on March 23, given his family’s ties to Brighton Beach in New York, which is home to a large Russian immigrant community.

The Journal is planning a 24-hour read-a-thon at its New York headquarters next week, where Gershkovich’s friends, family and colleagues will take part in a public reading of his reporting.

While the anniversary is “a painful moment in many ways,” Beckett said, “it’s also meant for everybody to dig back in and do what they can to help.”

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These negotiations were complicated by the broader geopolitical context of Russia’s war in Ukraine, sanctions, and deteriorating diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia

Title:

Content: "In recent weeks, we have made a new and important proposal to secure the release of Paul and Evan.
This proposal was rejected by Russia.
We should not have made such proposals.
They should not have been arrested at all.
They should both be released immediately, ” Miller told reporters.
"This will not prevent us from continuing to do everything we can to try to bring them both home," a State Department official said.
According to Miller, this proposal did not apply to other Americans detained in Russia.
Details of what the United States offered Russia, Miller refused to disclose, citing the secrecy of the negotiations.
Paul Whelan, a businessman and former Marine who also holds Irish, British and Canadian citizenship, was detained in a Moscow hotel in December 2018 on charges of espionage, which Whelan consistently and strongly rejects.
Whelan was sentenced by a Russian court to 16 years in prison in June 2020.
Whelan pleads not guilty.
On November 29, he was attacked by another prisoner in a Russian colony where he is serving his sentence.
32-year-old American journalist Evan Gershkovich was detained by the FSB of Russia on charges of espionage on March 29, 2023 in Yekaterinburg, and the next day a court in Moscow sent him under arrest.
Gershkovic categorically denies his guilt and is still awaiting trial in the jail cell.
Last week, a Russian court decided for the third time to extend the pre-trial detention of an American journalist until January 30.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said it was "deeply concerned" by the court's decision.
WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker said Monday in a letter to readers that the persecution of Gershkovich in Russia shows how "Vladimir Putin's repression of independent media is spreading to the foreign press."
The Biden administration said Whelan and Gershkovic were "unjustly detained" and that the charges against them were unfounded.
The Biden administration has repeatedly stated that it is doing everything possible to bring him home.
The Biden administration conducted two prisoner exchanges with Russia amid the cooling of bilateral relations due to Russia ’ s invasion of Ukraine.
Washington secured the release of American basketball player Brittney Greiner in December 2022 in exchange for Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.
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Russian 'Death Dealer' who supported invasion of Ukraine, used nuclear weapons is released and returned to join extremist party
Bout, a "dead businessman" who returned to Russia last week, announced on the 12th that he had joined the right-wing party known for its extreme nationalism, the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR). (Reuters)
2022 / 12 / 14 12: 43
The United States and Russia reached a prisoner swap agreement on the 8th to exchange Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer nicknamed "The Merchant of Death," for WNBA star Brittney Griner.
After his return, Boute not only expressed support for Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine, but also announced on the 12th that he had joined a right-wing party known for extreme nationalism, and his founder had repeatedly demanded that the Moscow government use nuclear weapons.
U.S. women's professional basketball (WNBA) star Graina was arrested at the Moscow airport in February this year after being found to be carrying an electronic cigarette containing 1 gram of cannabis oil and sent to exile last month after being sentenced to nine years in prison by a local court, the BBC reported.
After many negotiations, the United States and Russia successfully exchanged prisoners with Russia on the 8th of this month under the leadership of the Arab League, and returned to Grenada with the 55-year-old Russian arms dealer Bout.
Bout, a notorious arms dealer who was sentenced to 25 years in a US court in 2011, was released from prison last week, but less than a week after he was photographed on Monday, standing on stage with Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), and other key members of the party, to join the group. Party.
Slutsky thanked Bout for his willingness to be a member of “the best political party in Russia today ” and mentioned his long years in prison.“ Today he stands with us, and we will send back all those who are in distress outside our homeland. ”
The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that although Bout joined the ultra-nationalist right-wing party, he said he did not intend to run in any elections for the time being.
The report also mentions that the LDPR was founded in the early 1990s by the late far-right politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who gained notoriety for repeatedly demanding that the Moscow government use nuclear weapons and engaging in incomprehensible outlandish behavior.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, however, the LDPR emerged as a powerful power contender and is now extremely close to the Kremlin on many key issues, such as supporting an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Moreover, this is not the first time that the LDPR has recruited major international figures to join the party, such as Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent wanted in the UK for an assassination attempt, who joined the LDPR immediately after fleeing to Russia in 2007 and is now a member of the State Duma of the Russian lower house of parliament.
Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a US court in 2011 and released this year due to a US-Russia prisoner swap agreement. (Reuters)
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Griner’s experience in the Russian penal colony was described as harsh and isolating.

Conditions in such facilities can be severe, with reports of overcrowding, limited medical treatment, and psychological trauma.

Former prisoners noted the difficulty of navigating prison life without knowledge of Russian law or language, increasing vulnerability.

Title:

Content: Former prisoner in Russian punishment colony reveals to CNN what American Grainer can expect after 9 years in prison
The world.
Publish
Nadezhda Tolokonikova, from the group "Female Riot", spent nearly two years in a penal colony after demonstrating against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Tolokonikova explained what American basketball player Britney Grainer could expect after she was sentenced to nine years in prison for drug trafficking and shared the harsh conditions that occur in the Russian penal colonies.
Tolokonikova said she believed it would be “particularly difficult for Britney because she doesn ’ t know Russian, she can ’ t learn the law she has to abide by in the penal colony, and she can ’ t protect herself. ”
“The worst thing about a penal colony is watching the death of others around you and not being able to do anything.
People die from hard physical work and not being able to get the medical treatment they need.
But you're just another prisoner.
You can't do anything about it.
You just have to witness this cruelty and know that something like this can happen to you as well. ”
Tolokonikova revealed the motivation that kept her alive, saying: "The most important thing now is to minimize the trauma that she will endure during this time period.
Thinking about your loved ones who are waiting for you and who need you, don ’ t give up on your life.
Things like finding a beautiful flower and thinking that this beautiful flower was able to grow in these terrible and terrifying conditions in this nightmarish world prompted me to stay alive and not lose faith that there would be life outside the punitive colony. ”
Tolokonikova concluded: “I hope Britney will come home as soon as possible and experience as little trauma as possible in her condition.
I ’ m really looking forward to reuniting her with her family. ”

Despite these adversities, Griner maintained hope, bolstered by support campaigns and personal resilience.

Title:

Content: Brittney Griner Asks Fans, Advocates to Write Letters to Paul Whelan: 'It's Our Turn to Support'

The WNBA star shared Whelan's mailing address and said, "I hope you'll join me in writing to Paul Whelan and continuing to advocate for other Americans to be rescued and returned to their families"

Brittney Griner has a request for her supporters this holiday season.

The WNBA star, who was released from Russian custody on Dec. 8, penned a handwritten letter to her Instagram followers on Wednesday morning, asking those who helped advocate for her safe return to do the same for Paul Whelan and other families of wrongfully detained loved ones.

"Thanks to the efforts of many, including you, I am home after nearly 10 months," Griner wrote. "You took time to show me you cared, and I want to personally take the time to write to you and say that your effort mattered."

Griner said the letters she received from fans and friends, through the #WeAreBG campaign, helped her "to not lose hope during a time" filled with "regret."

She described her feeling "vulnerable in ways I could have never imagined," in the letter.

The Phoenix Mercury center thanked those who wrote to her "from the bottom of my heart" and said that it was because of those communications of support that she "never lost hope" over the course of her detainment.

The letters were "bigger than uplifting" for the WNBA star, though. Griner explained that the thousands of messages she received showed her "the power of collective hands" and now, she hopes to help Whelan, the former U.S. marine who has been imprisoned in Russia for four years on espionage charges, and other detained Americans, come home.

"Together, we can do hard things," Griner wrote. "I'm living proof of that."

"My family is whole and now, thanks to you, we are fortunate to get to spend the holidays together," she wrote. "However, there remain too many families with loved ones wrongfully detained."

Griner explained, "Those families stood alongside you and all who supported the #WeAreBG campaign to bring me home, and it's our turn to support them. I hope you'll join me in writing to Paul Whelan and continuing to advocate for other Americans to be rescued and returned to their families."

Griner ended her letter by thanking fans once more, adding, "I hope your holiday season is full of joy and love."

She included Whelan's mailing address at the bottom of her note. He is currently receiving mail through the American Citizen Services Unit Consular, per the address.

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Griner's intention to help Whelan and other Americans was first confirmed by her agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, in an ESPN interview after her release. Colas said both Griner and her wife, Cherelle, plan to "raise attention" for other families with loved ones detained abroad.

When Cherelle spoke from the White House following the announcement of Brittney's return, she said, "Today my family is whole, but as you are all aware, there are so many families who are not whole."

She added that she will continue advocating for "getting every American home, including Paul, whose family is in our hearts today."

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The WNBA and its players also mobilized awareness and advocacy efforts to bring attention to her plight .

The U.S. government, under President Biden, prioritized Griner’s release through diplomatic channels, publicly condemning her detention and vowing persistent efforts.

Title:

Content: The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.

American basketball star Brittney Griner has been detained in Russia since February. She has been facing drug possession charges for carrying vape cartridges in her luggage that contained cannabis oil. The charges carry a potential sentence of up to 10 years in jail.

Griner pleaded guilty to the drug charges in Russian court Thursday, while stressing that she had packed in a hurry and not intended to break Russian law. Regardless of Thursday’s plea, observers have not expected Griner to receive justice in the Russian legal system.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle, has accurately called her a “political pawn” caught up in the fraught relationship between the U.S. and Russia amid the latter’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. There should be little doubt that Griner’s detention is bigger than vape cartridges.

With frustrations increasingly being voiced by Griner’s family that President Joe Biden and his administration haven’t been doing enough to help her, Griner sent a letter to Biden on Monday asking for assistance for herself and other American detainees. For example, Paul Whelan, who also previously served in the Marines, was accused of being a spy and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.

“As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” Griner wrote in her July 4 letter to Biden.

Marine veteran Trevor Reed knows a thing or two about what Griner and Whelan are going through. Reed was detained in Russia for three years before being released in April as part of a prisoner exchange.

“There is no justice in Russia,” Reed told CNN in June. “Brittney and Paul will not receive justice in Russia. They’re not going to receive a fair trial, they will not receive a fair investigation. They will be there as hostages until the United States gets them out.”

He added that Griner was likely to be treated worse in Russia because of her race and sexual orientation, saying that the country “systematically discriminates” against Black and LGBTQ+ people.

There is only so much the Biden administration can do with Griner in the custody of an authoritarian government known for making examples out of political prisoners, and likely looking for a bargaining chip as it continues its barbaric invasion of Ukraine. Though as demonstrated by Reed’s release, there are options. It must not take three years.

At the very least, for now, Biden and his team can control how they communicate and reassure Griner’s family. And on that front, it seems the administration had been coming up short.

Griner’s family and friends had criticized the Biden administration’s handling of her case, and called for the president to meet with them. On Wednesday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris finally had a phone call with Cherelle Griner.

“The president called Cherelle to reassure her that he is working to secure Brittney’s release as soon as possible, as well as the release of Paul Whelan and other U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage in Russia and around the world,” the White House said in a statement after the call. “He also read her a draft of the letter the president is sending to Brittney today.”

That statement also noted that top administration officials have already had calls with Cherelle Griner in recent weeks, and said Biden has directed his national security team to stay in “regular contact” with the Griner family. A U.S. diplomat said they delivered Biden’s letter to Griner at Thursday’s proceedings.

Biden’s call with Griner’s wife was an initial step, and the ultimate goal must be a quick release for Griner and other political prisoners. There is much work left for the administration to do, including a continual commitment to assure Griner’s family that the U.S. is exploring all possible options to secure her release. And hopefully the attention will elevate the pressure to help return other Americans like Whelan as well.

“Write them, call them, annoy them, don’t leave them alone,” Reed said in June about pressuring federal representatives to act. “Tell them you want Brittney home and you want the rest of the Americans who are being wrongfully detained home, and you want it done now.”

Add us to the list of people looking to raise the pressure on the Biden administration to bring home wrongfully detained Americans like Griner, who are essentially hostages, and to bring them home quickly.

The BDN Editorial Board

The Bangor Daily News editorial board members are Publisher Richard J. Warren, Editorial Page Editor Susan Young, Assistant Editorial Page Editor Matt Junker and BDN President Todd Benoit. Young has worked...

Biden engaged with Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and the Mercury team while facing criticism over the perceived slowness of action.

Ultimately, in December 2022, after sustained negotiations, Griner was released in a high-profile prisoner swap, exchanged for Viktor Bout.

Title:

Content: Mercury post first video of Brittney Griner in uniform after re-signing WNBA star

Griner last played for Phoenix during the 2021 season

Brittney Griner is back in a Phoenix Mercury uniform over two months after returning from incarceration in Russia.

Griner officially re-signed with the only WNBA team she’s ever known this week, reportedly on a one-year deal with Phoenix worth $165,100.

American professional basketball player Brittney Griner acknowledges fans as she watches on the 16th hole during the third round of the Phoenix Open golf tournament, Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023, in Scottsdale, Ariz.  (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

On Friday, the franchise posted a video of Griner in a Mercury uniform for the first time since her signing.

FORMER WNBA MVP NNEKA OGWUMIKE RETURNING TO LOS ANGELES SPARKS ON ONE-YEAR DEAL: REPORT

Griner, who spent 10 months in Russian custody after authorities allegedly discovered that she had vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage, will return for her 10th WNBA season.

The WNBA champion was arrested in February 2022 at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport and was later classified as "wrongfully detained" by the U.S. State Department.

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a courtroom after a hearing, in Khimki just outside Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.  (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko.)

After months of strained negotiations, Griner was released from a Russian penal colony in early December in a prisoner exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

On Thursday, Griner participated in a workout at the team facility when Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton emerged to watch.

"It’s unreal," Ayton said, according to the Arizona Republic. "Just watching her and seeing the reactions on her face. Her just being back and trying to get back in shape and just loving the game she loves to do. You can tell her mind is free."

Phoenix Mercury's Brittney Griner (42) is congratulated on a play against the Seattle Storm in the first half of the second round of the WNBA basketball playoffs Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021, in Everett, Wash. Griner, who was a free agent, re-signed with the Mercury on a one-year contract according to a person familiar with the deal. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023, because no announcement has been made.  (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Griner was drafted by Phoenix with the top pick of the 2013 draft, helping the Mercury win the WNBA championship in 2014.

Phoenix opens the 2023 season on May 19th against the Los Angeles Sparks.

Fox News' Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.

The swap drew mixed reactions: jubilation from Griner’s supporters and criticism from some U.S. politicians who opposed releasing Bout and felt Paul Whelan was unfairly excluded [0b74e1f9-0567-4d34-982f-dac6a2d9dc79_11081054; 530d83be-f15c-4cbb-84ed-9a507a8e94fa_323326971; a2aabb70-21c9-4e44-8ce3-aa8abb43ace4_55045465].

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Content: Categories
Finance

Inside Joe Biden’s Faustian pact with Russia to secure Brittney

Three weeks ago, the American basketball star Brittney Griner arrived at a Russian penal colony known for torture, beatings and slave labour to begin a nine-year sentence following her arrest at a Moscow airport in February for possession of vaping cartridges containing hashish oil.

But in a stunning twist on Thursday, Griner’s plight as an unwitting pawn in a high-stakes geopolitical struggle came to an abrupt end, as she arrived in Abu Dhabi from Moscow and boarded a plane home to reunite with her family. She landed in San Antonio, Texas, early Friday morning.

In exchange for Griner’s release, the US released Viktor Bout, a notorious arms trafficker who was serving a 25-year sentence for conspiring to kill US citizens and aiding a terrorist organisation.

The deal was met with jubilation from Griner’s family and supporters. But the controversial swap for Bout — as well as the exclusion of Paul Whelan, another US citizen imprisoned in Russia — also drew criticism and raised questions about how America’s adversaries might leverage arrests of its citizens in the future.

US officials began working toward Griner’s release as soon as she was apprehended in Russia in February, but the effort became more concentrated on prisoner swap negotiations once the State Department declared in May that she had been wrongfully detained.

In July, US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on the phone for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. During the call, Blinken pressed Lavrov to accept a “substantial proposal” from Washington to release Griner and the former marine Whelan, who has been detained in Russia since 2018 on what the US and his family say are trumped-up espionage charges.

Americans had offered to free Bout, people familiar with the discussions said, but the Russians said they also wanted the release of Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel from Russia’s domestic spy agency who was convicted of murder in Germany last year.

In the ensuing months, officials said, Washington made a number of offers to Russia in an attempt to secure the release of Griner and Whelan.

However, Biden administration officials said that in recent weeks it became clear that Moscow would only accept a one-for-one swap. According to one senior administration official, “the choice was bringing Brittney Griner home right now or bringing no Americans home from Russia right now”.

Despite the Biden administration’s insistence that they had no choice but to exclude Whelan from the deal, Republican lawmakers and others denounced the decision, as well as facilitating the release of Bout, who is also known as “the merchant of death”.

“The Biden administration has allowed Viktor Bout, a dangerous arms dealer who was convicted of conspiring to kill American law enforcement, to walk free,” said Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

“This move to appease Vladimir Putin will only encourage further hostage taking by Russian security forces,” he added.

US officials described Biden’s choice as a painful one, adding that they would continue to work for Whelan’s release. Washington previously secured the release of Trevor Reed, another former marine, via a prisoner swap in April.

People familiar with Thursday’s prisoner exchange likened the episode to “a scene from the Cold War”, with Russian and American planes meeting on the tarmac at an airport in Abu Dhabi.

The Russian plane carrying Griner arrived first, one of the people said. American officials and people familiar with the events said the basketball star was upbeat on the tarmac, saying she was looking forward to returning home.

The Griner-Bout swap marks a rare instance in which the US and Russia have been able to find common ground since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sending the west’s relationship with Moscow to its lowest ebb since the Cuban missile crisis.

According to people familiar with the matter, the Americans and Russians directly negotiated the details of the swaps, with UAE officials including president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan helping to facilitate the mechanics of the transfer.

It is not unusual for third countries to aid in brokering international diplomatic agreements such as prisoner swaps between hostile countries.

Sheikh Mohammed and Putin discussed the matter when they met in Russia in October, and they spoke on the phone on Wednesday, people familiar with the meetings said. Yousef al-Otaiba, UAE ambassador to the US, was present for the exchange on Thursday and had helped to co-ordinate details on the American side.

On Thursday, some pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the swap as a return to diplomacy. “Everyone sees through this exchange that Moscow and Washington are holding secret negotiations and can make a deal,” Sergei Markov, a political scientist and former member of Russia’s parliament, wrote on Telegram. “And everyone hopes that means Moscow and Washington can make a deal to end the war in Ukraine.”

However, analysts and US officials said that while the breakthrough was a sign that the two sides could get things done when their interests align, it was not evidence of any larger thaw in relations. Biden administration officials added that the recent conversations with Russia about Griner and other prisoners were limited to the release of wrongfully detained Americans.

“The exchange doesn’t do anything to change the situation for bilateral relations. There are lots of issues where they are in open confrontation,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He said the otherwise dire state of relations between Russia and the west was thrown into sharp relief last week, when Moscow abruptly pulled out of talks on renewing the New Start treaty, the only remaining agreement governing the countries’ nuclear arsenals.

“This is a global stability issue: the last remainders of arms control are falling apart, which could lead to an arms race and a higher risk of dangerous incidents,” he said. “The trajectory we’re on is making that all the more likely.”

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Following her release, Griner returned to the United States and resumed training with the Phoenix Mercury, her WNBA team since 2013.

She signed a one-year contract to rejoin the league for the 2023 season.

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Content: The 2023 WNBA free agency period is set to begin on Saturday (Jan. 21), when teams will first be allowed to speak to players. This year's class, which features half a dozen former MVPs, is being hailed as one of the best in league history -- though to that point it's worth noting that free agency has only recently become an important part of the league calendar thanks to CBA changes.

Before all the action gets started, here's a look at the top 10 free agents for 2023. For a full breakdown of all the key dates, rules, and every single free agent, go here

1. Breanna Stewart

  • 2022 team: Seattle Storm
  • Status: Unrestricted

Stewart only signed a one-year deal with the Seattle Storm last winter, so she'll now reprise her role as the undisputed top free agent. Last season she won the first scoring title of her career by putting up 21.8 points per game, finished runner-up in MVP voting and third in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and made both All-WNBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team. She's at worst the second-best player in the league and will turn whatever team she's on into a title hopeful. Whether that will remain the Storm or be someone else remains to be seen. Stewart made it clear during her end-of-season press conference that she plans on exploring the free agent market, and will have her choice of destination.

2. Candace Parker

  • 2022 team: Chicago Sky
  • Status: Unrestricted

Despite considering retirement at various points during the past few years, Parker confirmed in November that she will be back for a 16th WNBA season. But where? The Sky's title defense ended in devastating fashion last season by blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead at home in Game 5 of the semifinals, and nearly every key veteran is now a free agent. It's hard to imagine Parker leaving Chicago just a few years after her dramatic homecoming, but at the same time she'll want to compete for a title at this point in her career; depending on what happens with the rest of the roster this winter, she may have a better chance to do so on another team.

3. Courtney Vandersloot

  • 2022 team: Chicago Sky
  • Status: Unrestricted

Vandersloot is another important member of the Sky hitting free agency this winter, and there have already been whispers about her leaving the only franchise she's ever known. Per Howard Megdal of The Next, there is mutual interest between Vandersloot and the New York Liberty, who just pulled off a trade for Jonquel Jones. Vandersloot may no longer be the undisputed best point guard in the league at this stage of her career, but she still finished second in assists per game last season at 6.5 and is one of the best facilitators in league history. If she leaves Chicago after more than a decade, it would be a significant loss for the Sky and could influence how the rest of their free agents act. And if she does indeed head to the Big Apple to team up with Jones and Sabrina Ionescu, the Liberty would instantly become a title contender.

4. Nneka Ogwumike

  • 2022 team: Los Angeles Sparks
  • Status: Unrestricted

Such is the nature of this year's free agency class that Ogwumike, a former MVP, seven-time All-Star and five-time All-WNBA performer has to settle for fourth place on this list. After a few tough seasons in 2020 and 2021, in which she was limited to 36 games, Ogwumike returned to an elite level last summer. She averaged 18.1 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, and even earned a few down-ballot MVP votes. But even with Ogwumike playing at that level, the Sparks missed the playoffs and were nowhere near the top teams in the league. As Ogwumike enters Year 12, whether she sticks around or decides to chase a title elsewhere could depend on what other moves the Sparks are able to pull off. They've already added new head coach Curt Miller and traded for veteran point guard Jasmine Thomas, and have nearly $1 million in cap space.

5. Brittney Griner

  • 2022 team: Phoenix Mercury
  • Status: Unrestricted

Under normal circumstances, Griner would be higher up this list due to the fact that she's one of the best centers in league history. As it is, Griner is coming off 10 months of wrongful detainment in Russia on drug charges, and it's still unclear what sort of shape she's in both mentally and physically. One thing is clear, however: Griner has stated her intent to play basketball this season, and wants to do so with the Phoenix Mercury, the only team she's ever suited up for since being the No. 1 overall pick in 2013. How Griner fares this season will be a major determining factor in the Mercury's chances of getting back to contention status, but the most important thing is that she's free and back home.

6. Brionna Jones

  • 2022 team: Connecticut Sun
  • Status: Unrestricted

After winning Most Improved Player in 2021, Jones picked up another major award with Sixth Player of the Year in 2022. She was also an All-Star in each of those two seasons, yet still often flew under the radar on a Connecticut Sun team with Jonquel Jones, Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner. Heading into the offseason, it seemed Brionna Jones would be the odd person out in the Sun's cap squeeze, but after Jonquel Jones forced a trade to the Liberty, that's no longer an issue. The Sun plan to give Brionna Jones the core designation, per Alexa Philippou, which would give them exclusive negotiating rights and likely keep Jones in Uncasville for at least one more season.

7. Emma Meesseman

  • 2022 team: Chicago Sky
  • Status: Unrestricted

Meesseman is yet another member of the Sky who will have no shortage of suitors this winter. The 2019 Finals MVP is perhaps the gold standard for complimentary players in the league; she's an efficient scorer, a high-level playmaker for a big – her 3.8 assists per game last season were second only to Parker among players 6-foot-4 and taller – and a beloved teammate wherever she goes. With her versatility and unselfish style, she'd be a fit for any contending team. There's no doubt the Sky would love to keep her around, but if there are signs that the core of that team is splitting up, Meesseman could look elsewhere.

8. Ezi Magbegor

  • 2022 team: Seattle Storm
  • Status: Reserved (qualifying offer extended)

The 23-year-old Australian was one of the leading contenders for Defensive Player of the Year last season until Tina Charles arrived on the scene and pushed her into a bench role. Still, Magbegor made All-Defensive Second Team and in 23 games as a starter put up 11.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game. Magbegor should return to the starting lineup next season, but regardless of her role, she's established herself as one of the best young bigs in the league. As a reserved player, the Seattle Storm have exclusive negotiating rights and have already extended a qualifying offer, so expect her to return to the Pacific Northwest.

9. Diana Taurasi

  • 2022 team: Phoenix Mercury
  • Status: Unrestricted

Taurasi, the WNBA's all-time leading scorer with 9,693 points, told reporters in November that she intends to return for her 19th season. Now 40 years old, Taurasi has spent her entire career with the Mercury, and all signs point to her staying in the desert, especially now that Griner is back home and plans to play this season. Now well past her prime, Taurasi has struggled with injuries and inefficiency in recent seasons and to some extent it's hard to figure out where to place her on a list like this. Her shot creation is still valuable, though, especially in a league that's front-court heavy. Even at this stage in her career, Taurasi was one of six players in the top-15 in both scoring and assists.

10. Azura Stevens

  • 2022 team: Chicago Sky
  • Status: Unrestricted

We'll once again head back to Chicago to check in on Azura Stevens, the fourth member of the Sky to crack this list. Stevens is coming off another solid season in which she averaged 10.6 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game, while shooting 36.2 percent from 3-point land on a career-high 3.3 attempts per game. She did that largely off the bench, starting just eight games and averaging 21.9 minutes. A spot starter for the first five seasons of her career, it will be interesting to see if Stevens agitates for a bigger role, whether that's in Chicago or elsewhere. Injuries have been an issue for her throughout her career, though, so a smaller role may be best for both her and whatever team she joins.

Honorable mentions

  • Tina Charles: Seattle Storm, unrestricted
  • Marine Johannes: New York Liberty, reserved (qualifying offer extended)
  • Marina Mabrey: Dallas Wings, restricted (qualifying offer extended)
  • Teaira McCowan: Dallas Wings, restricted (qualifying offer extended)
  • Gabby Williams: Seattle Storm, restricted (qualifying offer extended)

Observers noted her mental and physical resilience, as well as the uplifting spirit she brought back to the team and the wider WNBA community.

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Content: ‘She brings light’: Brittney Griner’s triumphant return to the WNBA

Prior to being detained in a Russian prison for 294 days, Brittney Griner was on top of the world.

The 32-year-old was coming off one of the best WNBA seasons of her career. She was the Most Valuable Player runner-up, averaging 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds for the Phoenix Mercury, who she led back to the WNBA finals for the first time since winning the title in 2014. Meanwhile, Griner was on her way to play for Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg, who she had led to four EuroLeague titles since she started spending her WNBA off-seasons there in 2014.

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At the time of her arrest Griner was, according to the testimony of her Russian teammate Evgenia Belyakova, “the most beloved player in Russia.”

To become such a popular figure in both America and Russia is no easy task for a gay, Black woman. But Griner’s ascent was never easy. She was bullied relentlessly growing up, first for her size and later for her sexuality, becoming one of the first active athletes in professional North American sports to come out as gay, shortly after being drafted No 1 overall by the Mercury in 2013.

In her first game as a pro, the 6ft 9in Griner towered over her opponents, changing the perceptions of what a female basketball player was capable of when she set a WNBA record with two dunks in a game. Griner went on to win a WNBA title, two Olympic gold medals, and seven WNBA All-Star appearances, on pace to achieve a level of greatness few ever have in the women’s game, and being marketed accordingly.

In fact, Griner was the first openly gay athlete to be endorsed by Nike. And the WNBA used her at the center of its marketing, acknowledging that gay athletes and LGBTQ+ activists like Griner were good for business.

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So when it all came crashing down at a Moscow airport on 17 February 2022, when Griner was found with vape cartridges containing traces of hashish oil in her luggage, not only did her career come to a screeching halt, but the league that she had been bound to since 2013 lost some of its forward momentum, too. She was later sentenced to nine years in Russian prison.

As much as Griner tried to stay positive, and as much as the WNBA community tried to help, a cloud hung over the entire 2022 season – one that would not dissipate until Griner was released and returned to America.

“Last year, it felt as though we couldn’t play with joy … It felt bad for us to be happy or to celebrate things because the weight of BG’s wrongful detainment weighed over us,” says former Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard.

When the US negotiated a prisoner swap to secure Griner’s freedom last December, she almost immediately announced her intention to return to the WNBA in 2023, signing a one-year deal with the Mercury. But nobody knew what to expect from Griner, who had spent almost a year under arduous physical and mental conditions.

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But, against all odds, Griner appears to be back to her normal self, on and off the court.

Related: WNBA power lies with two superteams. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing

In her first WNBA game in 579 days, Griner had 18 points, six rebounds and four blocks in a loss to the Los Angeles Sparks. In her first home game a couple of days later, she hit just the seventh three-pointer of her career, yelling “I’m back!” to the crowd of 14,000 cheering fans.

“I appreciate everything a little more,” Griner said about being back in the league. “All the little, small moments that I used to just [think]: ‘Oh, I’m so tired, I don’t want to go to practice today. And, oh, this and that.’ That has changed, honestly. Just appreciating everything because tomorrow’s not guaranteed.”

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Griner is averaging 19.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.4 blocks on a career-high 61.8% shooting through her first nine games of the 2023 season. She is back to being the Mercury’s best player, dominating in the post over swarms of defenders and blocking everything that comes her way on the other end of the floor. After being an honorary All-Star selection last season, Griner was named an All-Star starter on Sunday.

But what may be even more impressive is the enthusiasm and spirit she has brought to the Mercury and the WNBA, constantly flashing her trademark smile, joking around at press conferences, and uplifting her teammates at every opportunity.

“We were all hoping that she was going to be OK coming back, and that she did not lose her light, and she really didn’t,” says Mercury forward Megan Gustafson, adding that Griner’s presence has transformed the locker room. “I think we were a little bit surprised, because anyone that goes through an experience like that – I mean, I couldn’t even imagine being the same person. But she really is and I’m just so proud of her and just the light that she brings again … It’s really just her light, her positivity that [has] shone through.”

Sandy Brondello, who coached Griner in Phoenix for eight seasons prior to moving on to New York, is also glowing about the player’s return to the WNBA. “It’s like sometimes we sweat having a bad game – she was in prison,” says Brondello. “She had to live in prison for such a long time. So I think she has that joy. Just go out there and play.”

Griner has brought a lot of attention to the WNBA, which was already growing rapidly. Not only is the league averaging almost 1,000 more fans a game in Griner’s return season, but its broadcasts have also hit record viewership numbers – up 49% from last season across ESPN networks.

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“I think that if you look at last season, there was something and someone missing in the WNBA and that was obviously Brittney Griner,” former WNBA MVP and Griner’s one-time UMMC Ekaterinburg teammate Breanna Stewart says. “So the ability to have her back here kind of makes our circle complete, because she is such a force and a presence on and off the court and her ability to kind of be so dominant and aggressive but also such a kind, caring person – everybody’s missed that.”

Griner’s on-court play cannot be separated from her political advocacy off it, especially in a league as socially active as the WNBA. And Griner’s imprisonment has forced the WNBA to reckon with its lackluster treatment of athletes in the past, forcing the league to improve pay and travel standards so that the Griner situation does not repeat itself.

After all, the primary reason that Griner was in Russia in the first place is because her salary at UMMC Ekaterinburg is over $1m compared to the $165,100 she will make this year in the WNBA. In fact, 67 of the league’s 144 players still played internationally last off-season despite Griner’s detainment. Doing so is a financial necessity rather than a choice for most of the world’s best female basketball players.

The incident also highlighted concerns about commercial travel for WNBA players, many of whom are gay, Black women who can be targets of abuse. In fact, Griner has already been harassed this season when a conservative media personality confronted her and her teammates inside a Dallas airport in mid-June.

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In the past, the league has argued that charter flights create an unfair competitive advantage for teams that can afford to pay for them, fining the New York Liberty $500,000 for chartering flights last season. But the WNBA has already made improvements this season, allowing private flights for back-to-back games and for all playoff games. And after the news of Griner’s harassment and the pressure that came from it, the league recently announced that teams are permitted to fly on a public chartering service called JSX for the rest of the season.

It’s a step in the right direction that may not have been possible if not for Griner – a singular force who is as easy to galvanize around because of her on-court performances as she is for her personality. The league still has a long way to go in regards to growing the game and improving standards for its athletes, but Griner’s return has undoubtedly expedited the process.

“It’s a shame that it had to get to rock bottom. Because I feel like waiting for something to happen and then making a change, you don’t know what that something’s gonna be,” Griner said. “We’ve all seen what can happen in this world. And when you play the ‘let’s wait and see game,’ you’re really playing with fire. You’re playing with people’s lives.

“So I’m glad that they finally got it together and are going to allow us to do this. It’s just a shame that it took so damn long.”

Griner’s return highlighted ongoing issues in women's professional basketball regarding lower salaries that compel players to seek off-season work abroad, often in risky environments.

Her detention and release have prompted calls for improved safety measures for players and have accelerated conversations about league conditions and player support [9aeaca7f-0db8-4e55-bd35-99ce9c9fa90c_120346448; 91cae6dc-ec68-4d87-86c3-9f0354e39748_244734632; 463b03f3-cb63-4917-8d69-b74d9dad23b9_437354008].

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Content: 'What about the Merchant of Death?': Drug-smuggling WNBA star Brittney Griner is heckled about Russian prisoner swap by conservative influencer at DFW airport and asked if she still wants to boycott America

  • Brittney Griner was convicted of drug smuggling in Russia and imprisoned
  • She was released in controversial swap, but reception has not been all positive
  • DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news

Brittney Griner has been heckled about a prisoner swap which saw a notorious arms dealer handed over to Russia so she could be freed after smuggling weed into Moscow.

The WNBA star, 32, was confronted by conservative YouTube star Alex Stein at Dallas Fort-Worth Airport Saturday.

Stein said:  'Hey Britt, do you still wanna... do you still wanna boycott America?

'What about the Merchant of Death, Brittney?'

Griner did not appear to respond to the heckling, although a woman in her group could be heard calling Stein a 'weirdo.' He was held back from the controversial star by a male security guard.

Stein's questions referred to Griner's previous assertion that sports players should not have to stand for the national anthem ahead of games. She stopped doing so herself in 2020, following George Floyd's murder, but has since changed her mind and resumed doing so.

The 'Merchant of Death' remark referred to arms dealer Viktor Bout. He was being held in a US jail for stoking some of the world's worst conflicts, but was freed and flown to Russia on a private jet in exchange for Griner's freedom.

Griner (center) could be seen walking through the airport with her Phoenix Mercury team

A conservative influencer heckled WNBA star Brittney Griner at Dallas Airport on Saturday

Griner was busted with weed cartridges at Moscow airport in February 2022, while traveling to Russia to play for a women's basketball team there.

Marijuana is totally-illegal in Russia, with Griner subsequently convicted of drug smuggling in October 2022. She claims she had authorization to take the drug medicinally in her native Arizona.

The sportswoman was arrested just before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and news of her imprisonment did not emerge until the following month.

Griner was sentenced to spend nine years in a prison colony, but was freed in December after the Biden administration agreed to release Bout.

Her release sparked mixed reactions. Many said she should never have been jailed for carrying a drug she was legally entitled to use at home.

But critics said Griner should have been more cautious and respectful of Russian laws, and that she should have been well aware of the harsh penalties she'd face for breaking statutes there.

The WNBA and the her team - Phoenix Mercury - are reviewing the incident, which occurred as the team travelled home from their latest game in Dallas on Saturday.

Griner had played hours earlier in the WNBA, and the team were heading home on Saturday

Griner is pictured putting her bag through a scanner after she was approached by a sniffer dog at Moscow airport in February 2022

In a statement on Saturday, the league said it was looking into the team's run-in with a 'social media figure' whose 'actions were inappropriate and unfortunate.'

'The safety of Brittney Griner and all WNBA players is our top priority,' the league said, without specifying what exactly happened.

Griner and her supporters had lobbied for charter flights after she returned from detainment in Russia, saying the highly publicized case compromised her and others' safety. The league granted Griner permission to book her own charter flights to road games.

Mercury player Brianna Turner said in a tweet people at the airport followed the team with cameras 'saying wild remarks.'

Griner spent nearly 10 months in a Russian penal colony for drug smuggling last year

She was involved in a high-profile prisoner swap with 'Merchant of Death' Viktor Bout (above)

'Excessive harassment,' Turner tweeted. 'Our team nervously huddled in a corner unsure how to move about. We demand better.'

The WNBA has added charter flights for the playoffs this season, but only a handful of back-to-back regular season games were scheduled for such flights.

WNBA teams have flown commercially during the regular season since the league´s inception in 1997. The league typically doesn't allow teams to charter because it could create a competitive advantage for teams who can afford to pay for them.

'Prior to the season, the WNBA worked together with the Phoenix Mercury and BG's team to ensure her safety during her travel, which included charter flights for WNBA games and assigned security personnel with her at all times,' the league's statement reads. 'We remain steadfastly committed to the highest standards of security for players.'

Griner is pictured stepping back onto US soil after arriving at Kelly Field in San Antonio, Texas

The outside of the IK-2 penal colony in the town of Yavas in Mordovia, where Griner was held

The WNBA players' union issued a statement Saturday, saying the situation at the airport makes it 'quite clear that the matter of charter travel is NOT a 'competitive advantage' issue.'

'What BG and all of her PHX teammates experienced today was a calculated confrontation that left them feeling very unsafe,' the WNBPA statement reads. 'Everyone who was paying attention knew this would happen.'

The Mercury released a statement saying the team will be working with the league on next steps.

'We are committed to our support of BG and advocating for all American hostages abroad,' the team statement reads. 'We will continue our support of marginalized communities and fighting the kind of hate that targeted us today. No one, regardless of identity, should ever fear for their safety.'

Moment Brittney Griner is HECKLED over drug smuggling prisoner swap at Dallas airport

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Throughout the ordeal, issues of identity and representation were prominent.

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Where does wrongful detention of Brittney Griner go from here?

She will inevitably be labeled a hostage

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Brittney Griner

It seems like years rather than weeks ago that American political prisoner, Trevor Reed, was released from Russia in a prisoner swap. It also seems like years since an American citizen, basketball superstar Brittney Griner, was taken into custody in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport for allegedly having hashish oil in her possession.

We now know what many of us believed all along – that Brittney Griner was, in the far too late proclamation by the U.S. government, “wrongfully detained.” In diplomacy-speak, wrongfully detained is synonymous with politically detained, which is super close to what will soon enough inevitably happen – calling Brittney Griner a hostage.

Since the beginning of Griner’s detention, I have done dozens of print, radio, TV, and related interviews, and I have a pretty clear view of how and why we got here.

As I wrote around six weeks ago, if we read between the lines of what’s being said in traditional and social media, we can extract three key reasons why the Griner situation isn’t getting the attention that it should be and would be if it was a different athlete.

The first reason is that Brittney Griner is not a terribly high-profile athlete.

This is patently untrue. As I have been commenting from the minute we learned that she was taken into custody by the Russians, Griner was absolutely the highest-profile American athlete that Russia could have taken into custody as they were preparing for their brutal invasion of Ukraine.

The only other high-profile athletes playing in Russia or transiting through at that time were the very few American players in Russia’s top hockey league, the KHL. None are superstars in their sport, as Griner is.

The second argument for why Griner isn’t getting the attention she should be is that she is LGBTQ.

I have argued that this is a reasonably good hypothesis. It just seems that a straight athlete would be getting a lot more attention and public sympathy than Griner has, in part, yet not in full, because of her sexual orientation. That’s a remarkably harsh position to have to take in 2022, yet it’s clear that Griner doesn’t fit the mold of what many Americans see as that all-American athlete. That one’s sexual or gender orientation should drive the American public’s level of sympathy for one of their own top athletes is a shame, but here we are.

The third and most commonly cited reason for Brittany Griner getting less attention than another athlete in a similar situation is that she’s Black.

This argument holds little weight with me. Yes, it makes sense that in comparison to a high-profile white athlete, some people are simply going to care less about a Black athlete. Again, that’s a harsh analysis, yet not unaligned with many things going on in the nation today.

But I think this is a reductive argument that crumbles under the weight of the analogy that I usually use during TV and radio broadcasts about the Griner case – and that is, what if this was Kyrie Irving?

I like to use Kyrie Irving as an analogy because he is a highly controversial Black athlete. Obviously, NBA players don’t have to have second jobs in places like Russia, Turkey, and China, to make ends meet, as the WNBA women do. But just imagine that Kyrie Irving was traveling alone through Moscow airport. If Irving had been taken into custody by the Russians, I can guarantee that this would be front-page news not just in the sports section but on the front page of all significant papers practically every day. That simply hasn’t been the case with Brittney Griner.

Every day, I am asked where this goes from here. With Griner’s May 19 hearing delayed “one month” (though at the time of writing, no date has been set), I remained convinced of two things: that this goes to a worse place than we are now and that it progresses painfully slowly.

As to the first point, to maximize leverage over the United States, it’s likely that Griner will end up somewhere like a Russian labor camp before she ever steps back into the United States. While Russia does not follow the Rule of Law, it would be neither legally nor politically expedient to just hold Griner in a Moscow jail or prison indefinitely. They need to make her situation worse to turn up the urgency of the case for the American government.

But this indeed won’t happen overnight. As I’ve also been saying all along, the next hearing date will also be delayed, OR we will learn through a TASS Russian media release that Griner was tried, found guilty of all charges, and sentenced (see labor camp, above).

As to what each of us can do, my advice remains the same: Keep talking about it. Make this Brittney as viral as Britney Spears was a year ago. Just as Britney Spears’ freedom from her conservatorship was turbo-charged by the #FreeBritney hashtag, let’s #FreeBrittney now.

This is significantly less trite than it sounds. There is no indication that the American government doesn’t want you to forget about Brittney Griner. As former hostage Jason Rezaian discussed on an excellent recent Washington Post podcast, he always “calls BS” on those parties, saying we should keep detentions such as Griner’s out of the public spotlight. He advocates being as loud as we can be on this, which is why I keep doing interviews on this issue as much as possible.

Ultimately, Brittney Griner will be a political prisoner until the United States and Russia can decide, in crass basketball terms, on a fair player trade. On Friday, we learned that the two sides might actually be in discussions now for a trade involving Griner for notorious convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, aka the “Merchant of Death.”

Unless this can re-enter and remain in the public spotlight, along with any pressure on the government, Britney Griner will not get the treatment she deserves as one of the greatest basketball players of her generation. That the massive disparity between how NBA and WNBA players are compensated laid the foundation for her to be in this position is the harsh reality these leagues face today. Yet it pales compared to the uncertain reality Griner faces today in a Moscow jail.

A Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer, Aron Solomon, JD, is the chief legal analyst for Today’s Esquire. He has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania, and was elected to Fastcase 50, recognizing the top 50 legal innovators in the world.

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Leave no one behind: Building an LGBTQ+ movement for all

A just society is only achievable by investing in dignity of the marginalized

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Despite the expansion of LGBTQ+ civil rights and liberties in D.C., some of which we proudly attribute to GLAA’s stalwart activism for the past 51 years, the most vulnerable members of our community continue to suffer from poverty, homelessness, criminalization, discrimination, social isolation, and preventable death. A jaw-dropping 40% of homeless youth in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+, LGBTQ+ people experience hunger at twice the rate of straight people, and right here in D.C., the Office of Human Rights reports that employers are more likely to interview a less-qualified cisgender job applicant than a more-qualified transgender applicant.

So for our 2022 candidate ratings, GLAA decided to emphasize that racial and economic justice are LGBTQ+ justice issues. While we recognize the importance of openly LGBTQ+ candidates, we know one’s identity does not indicate where they stand on critical issues. Something many of us have learned the hard way, and something GLAA leadership recognizes not championing sooner as a mistake. What matters most is a candidate’s demonstrated record and vision to support the LGBTQ+ community in its entirety.

It is not enough for candidates to respond only to the needs of those who historically have held the most power in the LGBTQ+ community, particularly white cisgender gay men, in order to tout support of the entire community. The LGBTQ+ community is so many different people, and it is time we push candidates to consider and address us in our entirety. For too long, many LGBTQ+ people have felt rejected and betrayed by our community’s movement priorities, narratives about what our community stands for, and decisions on who is valued and who is selected to represent or lead us. And, while GLAA understands no one politician or organization can erase these community divides, we aim to be intentional in our approach to dismantle that which stands in our entire community’s way toward liberation. That is why, in 2022 we decided to rate candidates on their responses and records of support on issues that impact the most marginalized members of the LGBTQ+ community. None of us is free until all of us are free.

Throughout GLAA’s history we have focused on securing LGBTQ+ rights, which have mostly strengthened the legal protections of people privileged enough to take advantage of them. GLAA decided to focus the Leave No One Behind: 2022 Election Guide and questionnaire on racial and economic justice with an LGBTQ+ lens. We did this to build on our victories, such as successfully advocating for the defunding of the Metropolitan Police Department’s vice squad in the 1970s, and to learn from our mistakes.

It is our belief that a just, peaceful, and vibrant society is only achievable by actively investing in the security and dignity of the poor and marginalized members of all our communities. Our questionnaire intentionally acts in solidarity with D.C. anti-poverty, anti-stigma, and anti-overdose campaigns, which are largely led by trans and queer people of color.

Ratings are on a scale of +/-10 points: yes/no responses on questionnaire (+/-2); substance of response (+/-4); and candidate’s public record (+/-4). Candidates earned partial credit for the yes/no category if they partially agreed with the question. Four issues received more than 91% agreement: increasing the affordable housing stock for the poorest residents, housing people using government funded vouchers, fully funding the Office of Human Rights, and better oversight to improve conditions in the DC Jail.

Three issues received 70-79% candidates’ support, and over 90% when including candidates who issued partial support: Repealing the sub-minimum wage, decriminalization of drug use, and reducing the population of D.C. jail by 30%.

Finally, the least supported policies were decriminalization of consensual sex work and divesting from the Metropolitan Police Department and investing in violence prevention and recidivism prevention programs. Even still, there was remarkable consensus: over 2/3 or 66% of candidates who issued total or partial support.

We are encouraged by the remarkable level of consensus on all of our issues, signaling that D.C. is ready for transformative change that at its core addresses the District’s current poverty, unaffordable housing, community and police-based violence, and overdose crises.

GLAA is excited to see more LGBTQ+ people on ballots. More exciting, however, is the number of politicians with fully realized and integrated LGBTQ+ policies in their platforms. Policies that extend across race and class lines. GLAA firmly believes all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, can be stewards of LGBTQ+ liberation. It is our hope that readers find these ratings not as endorsements, but as a starting point to imagine what is possible if local officials are guided by D.C. residents to use their elected power to create new possibilities that leave no one behind.

This opinion piece was signed by the 2022 Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance board of directors.

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GLAA has lost its way and should close

Their ratings no longer make an iota of difference in an election

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(Blade file photo by Pete Exis)

The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance (GLAA), once a respected organization, has now lost its way. It once represented all the members of the LGBTQ+ community, clearly no longer the case, as one can tell based on their questionnaire and ratings. They now represent only the far left in the community and are seeking to represent more than LGBTQ+ people as the statement from their current president suggests. That is not the role of GLAA.

One of the questions in this year’s questionnaire that candidates were asked to respond to is: “Do you support divesting from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to further invest in vital programs, including anti-poverty, violence prevention, crisis intervention, and reentry?” If you didn’t say yes, you lost points. This shows how out of touch they are as the DC Council just voted unanimously, on a first vote, to raise the budget of the MPD. The approved budget also includes increased funding for other vital programs. There’s no indication GLAA ever spoke to Council members on this issue.

Its website lists five officers, all men, with a blurb on each. The one for the president, in addition to listing past and current employment, says, “When he is not organizing, he loves asking people about their Myers Briggs Type (he is ENFP, for the record), doing gay crimes (the basics like drugs and public sex), having Spicy Vanilla sex, dancing to hot beats on the dance floor, practicing vulnerability, plotting revolution against capitalism and other forms of oppression.” He is entitled to his views. But I question how his leading the GLAA represents the broader LGBTQ+ community.

Over the years I’ve had issues with some of what GLAA has done and some of the issues they focused on. But the organization always represented the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ+ community in their questionnaire. Candidates getting a rating from the organization could feel it represented a wide range of opinion in the community. I would hope no candidate tries to pawn the current ratings off as any kind of support from the broader LGBTQ + community.

In the past you always knew their officers, including Rick Rosendall, Bob Summersgill and Jeff Coudriet among others, were involved with D.C. government and knew the issues in-depth. They knew the candidates. Responding to their questionnaire over the years was always interesting. Rick often was the one who spent hours drafting the questions. I always wondered why it was never enough to say yes you agree with their premise. Instead, you had to say it in hundreds, even thousands, of words to earn points. I know as I have filled out questionnaires for many candidates.

Today their website lists nine project areas, none with anything accomplished since 2016. The blog has nothing on any recent budget issues or legislation pertaining to the LGBTQ+ community, only information about the questionnaire. They claim to lobby the Council and monitor government agencies, but there is no indication of any meetings or testimony since 2017.

We can thank GLAA for the fact that today no politician can win office in D.C. without being supportive of the LGBTQ community. However, today their ratings no longer make an iota of difference in an election. Since this is now the only thing they do it’s time to close up shop. We have moved past the time in D.C. when a small number of people can sit in a room rating candidates they don’t know, on issues that don’t represent the community they are supposed to be representing.

So personally, I say thank you to all the people who worked hard over many years for GLAA to help move the LGBTQ community forward. I recognize there is much work still to be done but GLAA is not the organization to do it. We must work to ensure economic and civil justice for all members of our community; health equity for transgender persons; senior housing for our community; and employment opportunities for all, among other issues. But there are other LGBTQ organizations, and community organizations, doing these things better and the few members GLAA might still have should be directed to those other organizations.

If as their website claims they are planning an anniversary celebration, it should be one to honor all the people who in the past 50 years of the organization, worked hard and were successful in making my life and the lives of so many LGBTQ people in the District of Columbia and around the nation better. That would be an exciting way to say goodbye and celebrate the organization whose time it is to close.

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist. He writes regularly for the Blade.

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An unlikely revolution is happening at Christian universities

More than half have enacted LGBTQ non-discrimination policies

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Recent headlines have been filled with messages of doom and gloom for LGBTQ people. From bans on transgender women competing in sports to “don’t say gay” laws, it seems evident that conservative Republicans are freshly committed to rolling back the rights of LGBTQ people across the United States.

Yet, despite such recent setbacks, a student-led movement for LGBTQ inclusion is gaining ground in what would seem to be one of the unlikeliest settings — Christian colleges and universities.

Over the past few years, I’ve collected extensive data on U.S. Christian colleges and universities’ policies toward LGBTQ students. In one study, I found that 55% of all Christian colleges and universities in the United States have nondiscrimination policies inclusive of sexual orientation. In another recent study, I found that nearly half of all Christian colleges and universities are home to officially recognized LGBTQ student groups.

Even some of the most conservative Christian colleges and universities have changed their approach to LGBTQ students. When analyzing data collected in 2013, I found that nearly one-third of all Christian colleges and universities had adopted bans on so-called “homosexual acts” or “homosexual behavior” in their student handbooks. Yet, when reviewing Christian colleges and universities’ handbooks again over the past year, I found that under one-fourth of Christian colleges and universities had such discriminatory bans.

Why are some Christian colleges and universities becoming more accommodating—and even welcoming—to LGBTQ students?

There are several major reasons, but one of the most important is that several Christian denominations already embrace their LGBTQ members. Denominations such as the Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Disciples of Christ, and Presbyterian Church USA, for example, allow ministers to officiate same-sex weddings. An increasing number of nondenominational churches also affirm LGBTQ people. Those Christian colleges and universities that are already associated with affirming denominations are certainly among the most likely to affirm their LGBTQ students.

Another reason that many Christian colleges and universities are becoming welcoming toward LGBTQ students is that they do not necessarily believe their primary mission is to hold all students to the specific religious tenets of their associated denomination. Rather, they see their primary mission as providing an important service (education) to the broader society. Just as Christian hospitals do not refuse to provide medical treatment to people who are not members of their associated denominations, many Christian colleges and universities have chosen not to deny people an education simply because certain people are not members of their associated denominations.

A rising number of Christian colleges and universities also recognize the harms that occur when people are discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. A recent survey by Religious Exemption Accountability Project shows that 12% of all Christian college and university students self-identify as LGBTQ. Because studies show that LGBTQ people in non-affirming Christian colleges and universities report greater rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, many Christian schools understand they would be harming a significant number of their students if they continued to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

And still other schools are simply concerned with their bottom lines. The United States is projected to go over a “demographic cliff” in 2025, at which time the number of 18-year-olds nationwide will drop dramatically. Some reports say that one-third of all private colleges and universities nationwide will face major financial crises over the next decade, causing them to close or pursue mergers. Many Christian colleges and universities recognize that adopting discriminatory policies toward LGBTQ students would alienate significant portions of their potential student body.

Certainly, despite these encouraging trends, those who are committed to LGBTQ rights should not be complacent. Many schools have still been slow to extend nondiscrimination protections and housing accommodations to trans students. And the Religious Exemption Accountability Project estimates that as many as 100,000 LGBTQ students are currently enrolled at Christian colleges and universities that still refuse to affirm the dignity and rights of LGBTQ people. That organization recently filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, challenging the federal government’s policy of providing loans even to Christian colleges and universities that otherwise violate Title IX protections for LGBTQ students.

It is likely the case that some Christian colleges and universities will not change their policies toward LGBTQ rights unless they are legally required to do so. Still, at Christian colleges and universities across the United States, LGBTQ students are not waiting around. LGBTQ students are actively mobilizing to bring about inclusive policies at their schools, and at a surprising number of schools, they are succeeding.

Jonathan S. Coley is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University and a Public Fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute.

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Griner, a Black, openly gay woman, symbolized intersections of sports, gender, race, and politics.

Some commentators discussed how these factors influenced public and political attention to her case.

The advocacy by LGBTQ+ groups and Black community leaders was a significant element in the campaigns for her release.

Griner herself, post-release, has called on supporters to help raise awareness and advocate for others wrongfully detained abroad, especially Paul Whelan, underscoring a broader struggle with political imprisonment and international diplomacy

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In conclusion, Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia and subsequent prisoner swap illuminate the complex intersections of sports, geopolitics, and identity.

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New video shows Brittney Griner on flight back to US

02:37

After ten months of detention in Russia, WNBA star Brittney Griner has arrived in the U.S. and is receiving treatment at a San Antonio military hospital. Meanwhile, President Biden says he remains committed in his efforts to also bring home former Marine, Paul Whelan, who is still in Russian custody. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reports for TODAY.

WNBA star Brittney Griner arrives back in US after Russian prisoner swap

Her case exemplifies how governments may utilize prominent public figures as leverage in international negotiations, while also casting light on systemic issues affecting women in sports, including pay disparities and player safety.

The ongoing efforts to support Griner and advocate for others highlight the role of activism and diplomacy in addressing wrongful detentions, with implications for future U.S.-Russia relations amid broader global tensions.

Additional detailed insights into Griner’s personal adjustment after release and her current activism are somewhat limited, indicating areas for further research.