Category Archives: Brittney Griner

Blinken’s Moscow policy criticized by envoy who helped free Brittney Griner

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Secretary of state’s reluctance to speak to Russian counterpart impedes US, says envoy who helped arrange WNBA star’s release

A former US diplomat who participated in efforts to free the WNBA star Brittney Griner from jail in Russia has harshly criticised the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Biden administration over their approach to diplomacy with Moscow.

Cameron Hume, a career diplomat who was an ambassador under Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama, said: “For a secretary of state to not want to even get body language or two words from Sergei Lavrov about the situation in Moscow, in the Kremlin, in the people who are close to [Vladimir] Putin, during a time of war was striking to me.

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Brittney Griner in Texas medical facility as political fallout over swap continues

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Basketball star is being debriefed at San Antonio army facility as plight of other Americans held in Russia continues

Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who has been released from almost 10 months of detention in Russia in a prisoner swap with the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, is undergoing physical and mental evaluation at a Texas army facility as part of her rehabilitation to the US.

The two-time Olympic gold medalist is being debriefed at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. She arrived back in the US on Friday morning and was immediately taken for what was being described as “extensive health evaluations”.

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Biden faced internal opposition to Brittney Griner swap, reports say

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Department of Justice viewed deal to exchange basketball star for Russian arms dealer as a mistake

Joe Biden has faced pressure from within his own administration, as well as his political opponents, in securing the release of basketball player Brittney Griner from Russia, according to reports.

On Thursday, Biden hailed the “intense and painstaking negotiations” that led to the release of Griner in a prisoner swap deal with the arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possession of a small amount of cannabis oil, while Bout, nicknamed ‘the merchant of death’, was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for fueling conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.

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Brittney Griner arrives in US after prisoner exchange with Russia

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Basketball star lands at Texas airbase after being swapped for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout

The American basketball star Brittney Griner returned to the US early on Friday after being freed in a high-profile prisoner exchange from nearly 10 months in detention in Russia.

The deal, in which she was swapped for the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, secured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad and achieved a top goal for Joe Biden. But Washington failed to win freedom for another US citizen, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed for nearly four years.

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Biden hails release of Brittney Griner from Russian prison: ‘She’s safe, she’s on her way home’ – as it happened

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Russia exchanged Brittney Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout at Abu Dhabi airport, Politico reports, and the two walked past each other on the tarmac.

Biden said Griner would be back in the United States “in the next 24 hours”. According to Politico, Griner is heading to a military facility in San Antonio, Texas, to be evaluated.

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Brittney Griner freed from Russian prison in exchange for Viktor Bout

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Basketball star released as US agrees to free convicted arms dealer in dramatic prisoner swap

Russia has freed the jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange for the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called “Merchant of Death” who had been held in a US prison for 12 years.

Joe Biden, who had made Griner’s release a top priority after she spent almost 10 months in jail on drug charges, said in an address from the White House he found her “in good spirits” when speaking after the swap in Abu Dhabi.

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US awaits ‘serious response’ from Russia over Brittney Griner release proposal

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Diplomat in Moscow says US has ‘put a significant proposal on the table’ in effort to free basketball star jailed on drugs conviction

The US is waiting for a “serious response” from Russia to a series of proposals regarding the release of the basketball star Brittney Griner, a senior US diplomat said.

Elizabeth Rood, the US chargée d’affaires in Moscow, told Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency that talks about freeing Griner – who was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs – were ongoing. But Rood said Russia was yet to seriously engage.

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IK-2 Mordovia: the harsh, notorious penal colony holding Brittney Griner

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First-hand accounts from Russian prison where US basketball star has been sent paint a grim picture

The US basketball star Brittney Griner will endure harsh conditions inside the remote Mordovian penal colony to which she has been sent this week to serve her nine-year prison sentence, human rights experts and former prisoners of the colony have said.

“Prisons in Mordovia are notoriously terrible, even by Russian standards. The prisons there are known for the harsh regimes and human rights violations,” said Olga Zeveleva, a sociologist at the University of Helsinki who specialises in Russian prison conditions as part of the Gulag Echoes project. “It is a place any prisoner wants to avoid,” Zeveleva said.

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Brittney Griner begins sentence in remote Russian penal colony

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Lawyers say US basketball star ‘doing as well as could be expected’ at IK-2 in Mordovia, following visit

Basketball star Brittney Griner has been sent to a remote Russian penal colony to start serving her sentence, her lawyers have said.

“Brittney began serving her sentence at IK-2 in Mordovia,” lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement.

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US basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal rejected by Russian court

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Russian court rejects appeal by Griner against nine-year prison sentence for drugs possession and smuggling

A Russian court has rejected an appeal by the US basketball star Brittney Griner against her nine-year prison sentence for possession and smuggling of drugs.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist was arrested on 17 February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia.

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Brittney Griner ‘does not expect miracles’ at appeal over Russia sentence

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  • Basketball star serving nine-year jail term on drug charges
  • US involved in discussions to free Olympic champion

US basketball star Brittney Griner “does not expect miracles” at her appeal hearing on on Tuesday against a nine-year Russian jail term on drug charges, her lawyers said in a statement.

The Olympic champion was arrested in February at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. She was sentenced in August to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs.

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Brittney Griner sends message from Russian prison on birthday: ‘Thanks for fighting to get me home’

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Basketball player, who was arrested at Moscow airport after authorities found vape canisters, thanks supporters

Brittney Griner thanked her supporters from a Russian prison where the detained basketball athlete spent her 32nd birthday on Tuesday.

In a statement released by her lawyers and reported by CNN, Griner said: “Thank you everyone for fighting so hard to get me home. All the support and love are definitely helping me.”

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Putin aide says release of Brittney Griner is not a priority for Russia

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  • Olympic champion serving nine-year sentence on drug charge
  • Biden administration says it wants to bring player home

The difficulties involved in freeing Brittney Griner from her imprisonment in Russia were brought into stark relief this weekend when a senior aide to Vladimir Putin said the issue is not a priority for the Russian president.

In August, the basketball star was given a nine-year prison sentence for bringing a small amount of cannabis oil into Russia. The 31-year-old said she uses the drug to treat pain and has lodged an appeal against her sentence.

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Dennis Rodman plans Russia visit to seek release of Brittney Griner

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  • NBA hall of famer has called himself a ‘basketball ambassador’
  • Griner currently serving nine-year sentence in Russia

NBA hall of famer Dennis Rodman says he has permission to travel to Russia as he attempts to secure the release of fellow basketball star Brittney Griner.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in Russian jail for drug possession earlier this month. Her lawyers have filed an appeal and there are understood to be separate talks underway over a possible prisoner swap. But Rodman told NBC this weekend that he plans to make a trip of his own to negotiate the Olympic champion’s release.

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Russia ‘ready to discuss’ prisoner swap but will resist pressure to free Brittney Griner

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Biden ‘hopeful’ about Griner release after foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warns Russia will not tolerate ‘megaphone diplomacy’

Russia is ready to discuss a prisoner swap for imprisoned Americans, said its foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, but added that the Kremlin would resist public pressure to free US basketball star Brittney Griner and others being held in Russian prisons.

Lavrov’s remarks came a day after Griner received a nine-year prison sentence on drug charges that were seen as a gambit to demand an exchange for high-profile Russians in prison in the US, including the arms trafficker Viktor Bout.

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Joe Biden condemns Griner sentence and calls for ‘immediate release’

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President calls star’s detention ‘unacceptable’ as Tony Blinken reiterates commitment to bringing Griner home from Russia

The nine-and-a half-year sentence handed down by a Russian court to WBNA player and US Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner after she was found guilty of drug possession was greeted in America with outrage and condemnation.

Joe Biden released a statement following Griner’s sentencing, calling her detention “unacceptable”.

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