Brittney Griner, a WNBA star, has been sent to a Russian hard labor camp to serve her 9-1/2-year jail term after being convicted on drug charges in Moscow.
The basketball star would experience difficult conditions, and her family in the United States may not even be permitted to know where she is.
Griner was convicted of unlawful narcotics importation into Russia in August, six months after being stopped in a Moscow airport for carrying cannabis oil in a vape cartridge in her luggage.
While many western nations would disregard vape cartridges like the ones in her suitcase, Russia still has strong regulations against marijuana in any form. But, more importantly, Griner provided Russia with a high-profile political success over the US, and her conviction was a welcome poke at the US in Putin’s government’s eyes.
Griner attempted to appeal her more than nine-year jail term, but the Russian court denied her release request.
Despite repeated pressure from the sports world to do something to get the basketball player released, Joe Biden’s White House has been completely impotent to do anything about Griner’s position.
“Every minute that Brittney Griner must endure wrongful detention in Russia is a minute too long,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.