American basketball star Brittney Griner, who had been detained in Russia since February on a drug-possession charge, was released from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner exchange for a Russian arms dealer, President Biden announced Thursday. Griner had been incarcerated since pleading guilty to the charge in July. Here’s what you need to know.
Off the court, Griner came out as a lesbian in 2013, soon after she was selected with the first pick of the WNBA draft, and was the first openly gay athlete to receive an endorsement deal from Nike.
Griner is one of many athletes who have protested the playing of the national anthem before sporting events.
“I honestly feel we should not play the national anthem during our season,” Griner said in 2020 amid social-justice protests that followed the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. “I think we should take that much of a stand. I don’t mean that in any disrespect to our country. My dad was in Vietnam and a law officer for 30 years. I wanted to be a cop before basketball. I do have pride for my country.”
Why was Brittney Griner detained?Return to menu
Griner had been in Russian custody since Feb. 17, when authorities detained her at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside Moscow and accused her of carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is illegal in Russia.On July 7, Griner pleaded guilty to carrying cannabis oil on the second day of a trial in Moscow.“I’d like to plead guilty, Your Honor,” Griner said in court. “But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law.”She was sentenced to 9½ years in prison, close to the maximum allowed under Russian law, and fined 1 million rubles ($16,590). In November, she was moved to a Russian penal colony, a type of prison facility known for its brutal living conditions.
Why was Brittney Griner in Russia?Return to menu
Like many women’s basketball players, Griner supplements her income and keeps her skills sharp by playing overseas during the WNBA offseason. Griner was on the roster of UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League at the time of her arrest.
How has the U.S. government responded to Brittney Griner’s arrest?Return to menu
In early May, the State Department categorized Griner as “wrongfully detained,” a strategy shift that indicated it would no longer wait for the case to proceed through the Russian legal system and would take more aggressive steps to negotiate her release.
“We have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” the State Department said in a statement Monday after Griner’s latest court hearing. “The Department of State has determined that the Russian Federation has wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Brittney Griner. The U.S. government will continue to provide appropriate support to Ms. Griner and her family. We will continue to press for her release.”
After months of negotiations, Russia released Griner on Thursday in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the U.S. Justice Department once described as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers. Bout was serving a 25-year sentence after he was charged with conspiring to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S. officials said were to be used against Americans.
The prisoner exchange took place in Abu Dhabi, and President Biden announced Thursday that Griner was “safe” and “on her way home.”