By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
For the first time since the arrest of WNBA star Brittney Grinner in Russia, the US government made a move to bring the player back to her country. According to multiple media, USA Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed that the Biden administration offered a deal for the release of Griner and jailed American citizen Paul Whelan in exchange for convicted Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout.
So far there hasn’t been a response from Kremlin regarding the proposed arrangement. Blinken said that he asked to have a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, mainly to discuss the offer.
Griner was arrested on February 17 after the Federal Security Service of the Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She was on her way to join the UMMC Ekaterinburg club. She faces up to 10 years in prison for charges of smuggling drugs.
At her trial, Griner acknowledged that she was carrying the vape cartridges and also said that she doesn’t know how they were in her luggage. “I still don’t understand to this day how they ended up in my bags,” she said in her testimony. She mentioned that she has a medical permit to buy marijuana in the United States for her knee and ankle joint but she wouldn’t use it ahead of games due to the risk of testing positive for illegal substances.