Brittney Griner

On February 17th, 2022, Brittney Griner was arrested at the Moscow airport for possessing cannabis oil. About ten months later, Griener was released from a Russian prison on December 8th.

Brittney Griner is a 32-year-old WNBA player for the Pheonix Mercury team. She has received an Olympic gold medal two times and is a six-time WNBA All-Star. However, during the off seasons, Griner played for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian women ' s basketball team, for 10 years.

On January 23, 2022, the United States declared a Travel Advisory, which informs travelers on the safety of visiting certain international destinations, concerning visiting Russia. This was due to the ongoing conflict and increasing tensions at the Russian-Ukrainian border. In February, Griner was returning to Russia to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg once again. However, she was arrested at the airport for possessing hashish oil, an illegal substance in Russia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, all of the American WNBA players had evacuated Russia by March, except Griner.

On July 1, Britney Griner’s trial began in Russia and three days later, on Independence Day, she sent President Biden a letter pleading for his help and for him to remember the other Americans wrongfully detained by Russia’s government.

On July 7, Griner pleaded guilty to possession of illegal drugs; however, she claimed that it was due to the fact that she was packing in a hurry before arriving in Moscow and did not realize she was bringing illegal substances to the country. Twenty days later, she testified that when she was first arrested, she was not given the reason for her arrest, was not provided an attorney, and was forced to sign documents in Russian.

On August 4, Griner was found guilty after the court claimed that she intentionally brought the cannabis oil into the country and three days later was sentenced to nine years in prison. A month later, she was transferred to Mordovia, a Russian penal colony. According to The Guardian, “Prisons in Mordovia are notoriously terrible, even by Russian standards. The prisons there are known for their harsh regimes and human rights violations.”

A month after being sent to this intolerable penal colony, on December 8, Griner was released from the prison with a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and the Russian governments. Upon her return, she wrote in the caption of her Instagram post “The last 10 months have been a battle at every turn. I dug deep to keep my faith and it was the love from so many of you that helped keep me going.”

Although this was seen as a victory and an acquirement of justice by many Americans, others were very unhappy with the release of Griner. Some critics claim that President Biden should not have traded for Griner due to the fact that this exchange involved the extremely dangerous Russian prisoner and arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as the “Merchant of Death”, who was returned to Russia. Furthermore, according to CNN, Bout claimed “...he ‘wholeheartedly’ supports Moscow’s so-called “military operation” in Ukraine and that if he had the opportunity and necessary skills, he would ‘certainly go as a volunteer’” which is very concerning to Ukrainians considering Bout’s terrifying and dangerous reputation. Additionally, critics also state that Biden should have instead traded for Paul Wheelan, a former Marine who was also held prisoner by Russia. However, supporters of Griner have also raised the point that these critics simply do not want to see a Black lesbian woman being prioritized over a heterosexual White man. All in all, although the return of Britney Griner can be celebrated as an American success story, her return, in fact, has led to much controversy and differing opinions within the United States and around the world.