Empathy should be reserved for victims of unfortunate circumstances—not celebrities who think laws/rules don’t apply to them.
If Griner is a victim of anything, it's her own inflated sense of importance. When you leave America, you leave American justice and are at the mercy of foreigners and their laws. People caught with illegal drugs in a foreign country are subject to the drug laws of that country, not those of the United States. Sentences range from fines to years of hard labor and even the death penalty.
Griner knew she was visiting an authoritarian country with horrible jails, that was about to go to war against Ukraine and was threatening the US, and she broke the law of that country. She now claims it was an "accident" but even if you accept that excuse, it still wouldn't make it in our national interest to make her a cause celebre or trade some high value Russian prisoner for her.
So many in the media and online are trying to make this about her race, her sexual preference or her gender, but her arrest had nothing to do with any of that. She made a mistake in a place where mistakes can be very costly.
It's not "our fault" as some have alleged, that Griner was only making about $220K in the WNBA and therefore "had" to travel to Russia to be paid $1M per year to play while also supporting the Russian oligarchy by standing for the Russian anthem as a show of respect for those who were paying her hefty salary. She did that after refusing to stand for the American anthem during WNBA games. That was her right, of course, but it's a bad look when you do that and then go to Russia and pay respects to their anthem.
The U.S. State Department officials have classified Griner as “wrongfully detained,” which they often do when there is an indication that politics are involved. But she was not wrongfully detained according to Russian law and she has admitted to possessing the cannabis.
Marc Fogel, an American teacher who previously worked for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, was convicted of drug smuggling in June 2022 for 21 grams of cannabis he needed for medical issues — by the same court that is handling Ms. Griner’s case — and he got 14 years in a high-security penal colony. Meanwhile, the State Department isn't claiming Marc Fogel was “wrongfully detained” but then he isn't in the WNBA either.
The Russian Federation first invited Brittney Griner to play basketball in Russia in 2015 and she has gone there to play every year since. Her lawyers have offered as part of her defense that she has a doctor's note to use cannabis for pain. Of course that has no effect in Russia.
Does anyone really think this is the first time she brought her cannabis vapes with her when traveling and it was just an "accident" that it happened this time? Try claiming in the US that it was an "accident" you broke the law or that you shouldn't be arrested for doing something illegal you've done before without being arrested and see how far you get with that.
We should not be offering any concessions to get Griner back
Pressuring the US President, Congress and the American public to make concessions, like a prisoner swap using Victor Bout, aka the "Merchant of Death" is not in the national interest of the United States. Not only is it a terrible idea, but all of this attention only increases Griner's value to Putin as a bargaining chip.
And who is Victor Bout?
He is a notorious Russian arms dealer who used his multiple air transport companies to smuggle weapons since the collapse of the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for conspiring to sell weapons to people who said they planned to kill Americans.
Is Griner worth that? No, she is not.
Ultimately, trading a basketball star arrested with a small amount of hashish oil could result in more Americans being unjustly arrested and used as hostages for future swaps.
Is Griner worth that? No, she is not.
The US should certainly make an effort to get her and all other Americans being held by Russia freed, but not at any cost. Griner's supporters were initially keeping her arrest quiet in the hope that she might be released quickly. When it became clear that she was going to be prosecuted before any deal was struck, her supporters took her story public and they've gotten a tremendous amount of favorable coverage. Biden had to make a public display of support; important for domestic consumption, sure, but ultimately raising her potential value in a trade.
They should have waited till after the show trial was over. With Russia's war in Ukraine and the threat it poses to all of Europe and the US, this is not the time for a lot of drama over a famous basketball player who got caught with drugs being treated harshly by Russia's justice system. Our enemies only care about our drama to the extent that they can use it to their advantage. It would have been best to keep the negotiations over her private, until after she is sentenced. Then if they can't cut a deal in private, turn up the heat in public. Now whatever Biden does, he will look weak and Putin will benefit.
Update 7/28/2022
The Russians have made it quite clear from day one that there would be no negotiations until after Griner is convicted. And yet, the US has actually put an offer on the table already that would release Victor Bout, aka the "Merchant of Death" in exchange for Griner and Paul Whelan, an American accused by the Russians of spying and serving a 16 year prison sentence.
Meanwhile, no offers are being made to secure the release of Marc Fogel, but the Russian government replied to the U.S.'s initial offer for Griner and Whelan by requesting that convicted murderer Vadim Krasikov be part of the exchange, even though Krasikov is serving a life sentence in a German prison for a killing that was ordered by Putin. The Russians actually expect us to pressure the Germans to release Krasikov! This is what happens when, because of public pressure, you undercut your own negotiating position before negotiations even start.
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