Britney Griner held hostage in Russia

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A lot of people are surprised this isn't making news in America?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/ ... department

two time basketball gold medalist Britney Griner has been arrested in Russia on what appear to be trumped up drug charges. Griner, 31, plays for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA but plays in Russia during the US offseason.

She has been playing in Russia since 2015 and has no history of drug use/dealing.

A few days after the invasion of Ukraine She was detained at a Moscow airport on 17 February. Russian authorities said a search of Griner’s luggage revealed vape cartridges allegedly containing oil derived from cannabis, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Griner is one of several Americans detained in Russia.

Trevor Reed, a former US marine, is serving nine years on charges of assaulting police officers in Moscow. A corporate security executive from Michigan, Paul Whelan, is serving 16 years on espionage charges. The US government has said the charges against Whelan are false and called for his release.

There appears little chance of Griner being released quickly. The Russian state news agency Tass said on Thursday a court had extended pre-trial detention to 19 May.

Griner is being held at a facility where an US/Israeli woman, Naama Issachar, spent nine months in detention after Russian authorities said they found cannabis in her luggage during a stop-over on a flight from India to Israel.

Issachar was convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison before Vladimir Putin pardoned her in 2020 prior to a visit from Israeli prime minister benjamin Netanyahu.

As I suspected. Nobody gives a damn about one of their own.

She is a champion sportstar so I am curious why the US media hasn't made this a bigger story
Anyone?

Your suspicions are absolutely wrong.

I've been reading about her for the past week.

Her plight is mentioned but below the stories about the destruction of Ukraine. I have not read or listened to any commentary about her. Most of the commentary is centered on should America do more, will Russia retaliate with nukes or crippling cyber attacks. These other stories are more important then the plight of one person.

This is probably a good thing. Russia took these hostages as a bargaining chip expecting as in the past we would become obsessed and bargain more important things away.

I get the impression her story is buried in all the other "tales of woe" coming from Ukraine, The reason it's being buried is what interests me.

What about Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed? How much have you heard about them?

I mentioned Trevor Reed in my post

Unfortunate and frustrating what is happening to her. However, there isn't anything that can be done while there is a war, is there? Diplomatic ties are strained. Unfortunately I can't tell for sure when the US state department issued it's red level warning against travel to Russia; may have been after she'd already gotten trapped in the web.

I had to look up American citizens imprisoned in Russia to get those names. At the time I didn't recall them in the OP, so that was a really stupid question. The point I was trying to make though is in a lot of cases, an American citizen in a foreign prison goes largely unnoticed.

Many of the US nationals "banged up abroad" are usually not celebrities. Griner should be making news.

She has been allowed visits from the US embassy. Her problem in May (when she will be on trial) is whether the Russian courts decide to apply the full penalty which is 10 years.

Griner is making the news. But she's pretty far down the list of basketball celebrities.

https://today.yougov.com/ratings/sports ... layers/all

More specifically low down the list when compared to male basketballers.

Where is she at on the list of female basketball players?

Number 3 in the WNBA
https://hashtagbasketball.com/wnba/wnba-player-rankings

I guess that's good news for number 4 (*shrug*)

I actually watched a documentary about women's basketball - its so poorly paid (compared to the mens) that female players have no choice but to play overseas in the off season. Griner has played in Russia since 2015 which is 7 years. It's funny after all this time they coincidentally pull a vape pen out of her bags with marijuana residue?

I think its dishonourable to pick on her as she clearly has an affinity for Russia. All this does is make Russia look worse to overseas countries.