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© 2022 AFPRussia detains U.S. Olympic basketball champion on drugs charge
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© 2022 AFP
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TorafusuTorasan
Wow, that is a dumb move. Griner is like the b-ball equivalent of Ovechkin in the NHL.
Numan
Russia is pulling a CCP on the US. Russia will leverage this to get the US to ease up on the sanctions. He will stretch this out. Threaten to make Biden look weak. Putin knows he will have the support of Fox News to push that narrative. He is hoping Biden has a fragile ego like his predecessor who was willing to commit crimes including an insurrection to win an election. Putin's war was actually going to end badly for him.
tooheysnew
haha, good luck with that.
you can’t use a Neville Nobody as leverage.
Open-minded
@tooheynew...........She is American...nuff said!
Bordeaux
It is a Russian hostage situation. Putin is pretty desperate. He must be loosing his grip on power, and this is his last stand to keep his grip on power. This could also be his bucket list. He could mental or physically ill.
dagon
It wasn't clear exactly how long Griner had been in custody, with the customs service saying only that the arrest occurred "in February."
Indefinite period of detention and little communication allowed with the outside for a piddling non-violent offense. Hostage justice hmm...
Pukey2
Try this in Japan and see whether you can just walk out of the airport.
Blacklabel
Don’t bring drugs into a country that allows you to enter and make money there. Dumb.
kurisupisu
@Pukey2
You are spot on!
Mr Kipling
What a classy looking lady. I'm really surprised she is a drug user.
spinningplates
She just gave Putin a wonderful gift.The trouble with good people is they often do dumb things. Even though there's nothing wrong with her vaping...you must realize when you travel, you ain't in Kansas no more.
bobcatfish
Shouldn't this be in the crime section rather than sport?
englisc aspyrgend
So she can bounce a ball, doesn’t make her bright. Taking drugs in to a country where they are illegal is seriously stupid, but some people just don’t think the rules apply to them or more probably just don’t think. Just because it is legal in the USA (or any other country of origin) doesn’t mean it is legal everywhere else and playing sport doesn’t exempt you from the law.
Sounds like she was arrested before the psychotic dwarf sent his army in to Ukraine. Hostage justice? Probably not yet, more like a sclerotic and oppressive legal system where the rights of the individual simply don’t count at all. Another reason it was stupid to take drugs in to the country.
isoducky
The arrest happened in February. Just before the invasion….
I see it like this:
she bought the vape pen and stuff in Russia, likely through regular channels. She has likely entered and exited the country with vape pens no problem before or with a couple just lost in transit. But now with the tensions between Russia and US heating up, customs were likely asked to inspect all vape pens from Americans and western Europeans and enforce rules. This made her a target and the rest is history.
I don’t see her being used as a bargain chip, but more as an example of the dangers of the west. Drug addicted, drug smuggling, divorced, violent lesbian basketball payer works as a real good villainous face in Putin’s Russia.
Jim
If she had done the same thing while entering any other country, she would have been arrested as well! She would have been given a death sentence in Indonesia who don’t tolerate drugs at all! In Australia straight to the detention center followed by jail time or deportation. In China, hard labor in prison for many many years. In North Korea, she would have been never heard from again! In the US it’s hard to say because their legal system is just pathetic where criminals walk free and innocent ones serve jail time ( yet the have the nerve to whine about the legal system in the world )! In Japan she would have even been denied the right to a lawyer for 21 days while being grilled by prosecutors!
theFu
If she is guilty, Russian laws apply.
I doubt she brought any with her and strongly suspect it was just residue from the pre-Russia travel party. Heck, she might have been in a location where that was perfectly legal and didn't clean the vape paraphernalia sufficiently. That's a warning.
Similar things happen in the US. People driving between states cross into different legal jurisdictions. Some allow cannabis and others do not. This can lead to some basically good people, following their doctors orders, ending up in jail.
bass4funk
The tatts just ruin everything.
stormcrow
How do you spell ‘guest’ in Russian?
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