President Joe Biden, 79, made the return from a Russian jail of 31-year-old WNBA Phoenix Mercury star Britney Griner next to impossible. At the 2022 ESPY Awards, ESPN’s equivalent of the Oscars, 34-year-old show host Stephen Curry echoed the White House designation of Britney Griner as a “wrongfully detained” person after her Feb. 17 arrest and incarceration for possessing hash-laced vape-cartridges in her luggage on her way out of Russia’s Sheremetytevo airport. Griner’s fate hangs on the extent of White House diplomacy, something not considered at the ESPYs when every presenter talking about Griner AKA BG demanded she be released by Russian authorities. No one at the ESPY’s said anything about Biden’s ongoing proxy war against the Russian Federation, a real problem for BG’s release, not to mention insisting she’s “wrongfully detained.”
Britney pleaded guilty in a Moscow court July 7, all for strategy to pave the way for her eventual release in a prisoner swap with the Russian Federation. Griner hopes that 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin has any mercy for her situation, considering there’s no facts in dispute at her trial. Admitting that she accidentally left hashish-oil vape-cartridges in her luggage, Briteny admitted to possessing and using cannabis vape-cartridges while she played for Russian Premier League basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg. On July 16, Griner’s Russian Attorney Maria Blagovolina told the judge that Britney had an Arizona prescription for medical cannabis. So when Britney told the judge she accentually packed the cannabis vape-cartriges, he made her story a lot less credible. How could it be accidental if she showed the judge an Arizona cannabis prescription?
Telling Russian authorities—and the World—that Britney was “wrongfully detained,” suggests that she did nothing wrong bringing cannabis into Russia. “If a U.S. citizen was taken in connection with the fact that she was smuggling drugs, and she does not deny this, then this should be commensurate with our Russian, local laws, and not those adopted in San Francisco, New York and Washington,” said Kremlin Spokesperson Maria Zakharova. So when it comes to making 75-year-old former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardon’s job more difficult, the Biden White House has two strikes against it when it comes to Britney Griner. Whatever Richardson promises in a prisoner swap, Putin must decide to play ball. Clearly, swapping BG for notorious arms traders Viktor Bout and an undisclosed amount of cash sweetens the deal. But saying that BG was “unlawfully detained” irks the Kremlin.
Kremlin officials aren’t inclined to make any concessions with the U.S. while Biden supplies Ukraine lethal arms with the stated attempt to degrade the Russian military to the point it can no longer wage war. Putin understands the current war in Ukraine is really a U.S. proxy war against the Russian Federation. So when it comes to Richardson putting together a workable prisoner swap, conditions for a deal have never been worse. Biden shows no signs of ending its proxy war against the Russian Federation. With the worst approval ratings in presidential history, the public has been getting fed up with Biden’s failures, whether domestically or in foreign policy. If Biden really wants to get BG of a Moscow jail, he needs to pivot on the Ukraine War, no longer supplying Ukraine unlimited cash-and-lethal weapons. If that doesn’t happen soon, BG’s isn’t likely to get out of jail.
Kremlin officials like Zakharova watch what goes on in the U.S. carefully, listening to speeches at the ESPY’s. “It’s been 153 nights now that BF has been wrongfully detained thousands of miles away from home, away from her family, away from her friends away from her team,” said her teammate Skylar Diggins-Smith. “All through that time, we’ve kept her in our thoughts and in our hearts even though we know that ain’t nearly enough to bring her home, y’all.” Russia doesn’t like hearing the White House insist that BG what “wrongfully detained” when she broke Russian drug laws about possessing cannabis. Telling the judge it was “accidental” was inconsistent with Britney’s explanation to the judge that she was prescribed weed in Arizona, as if that counts in Russia. Zakharvova wants Biden to admit that Britney Griners was not “wrongfully detained.”
` By far the biggest obstacle to any possible prisoner swap to get Britney Griner out of a Moscow jail is Biden’s proxy war against the Russian Federation. Telling the world that Britney Griner is “wrongfully detained” also doesn’t help matters because she’s already plead guilty for cannabis possession. Zakharoka reminds Biden that calling Griner “unlawfully detained” doesn’t help her cause, especially if she wants to get out of Russia without doing time. U.S. athletes begging for the U.S. government to get Britney out don’t understand the state of war between the U.S. and Russian Federation. Every time Russian authorities hear from U.S. authorities that Griner is “wrongfully detained,” makes a prisoner swap less likely. But for all the athletes that don’t pay much attention to foreign affairs, Biden has created a state of war between the U.S. and Russian Federation, something not helpful in making deals.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
