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WASHINGTON — Russia mentioned on Saturday that it had detained an American basketball participant in Moscow on drug fees, entangling a U.S. citizen’s destiny within the harmful confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine.
The Russian Federal Customs Service mentioned that its officers had detained the participant after discovering vape cartridges that contained cannabis oil in her baggage on the Sheremetyevo airport close to Moscow.
The Customs Service mentioned in a press release that the participant had received two Olympic gold medals with the USA, nevertheless it didn’t launch the participant’s identify. The Russian information company Tass, citing a regulation enforcement supply, recognized the participant as Brittney Griner, a seven-time W.N.B.A. All-Star middle for the Phoenix Mercury. Griner, 31, received gold medals with the U.S. girls’s nationwide basketball crew in 2021 and 2016.
In a press release, Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, didn’t dispute experiences of her shopper’s detention. “We’re conscious of the state of affairs with Brittney Griner in Russia and are in shut contact along with her, her authorized illustration in Russia, her household, her groups and the W.N.B.A. and N.B.A.,” she mentioned.
Griner’s detention comes on the most harmful second in U.S.-Russia relations for the reason that Cuban Missile Disaster, because the Biden administration leads dozens of countries in imposing crushing sanctions on Russia’s economic system and political elites. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia mentioned on Saturday that the sanctions had been “akin to a declaration of warfare” on his nation.
Earlier on Saturday, the State Division, which for weeks had warned Individuals towards touring to Russia, launched an up to date advisory urging U.S. residents to go away the nation instantly, citing the invasion in Ukraine, the “potential for harassment towards U.S. residents by Russian authorities safety officers” and the restricted means of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to help Americans within the nation.
“I clearly don’t know the circumstances of her detention, however Griner’s arrest ought to function a wake-up name to all Individuals in Russia,” mentioned Michael A. McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow. “Get out. Shut down your companies now.”
The Russian Customs Service launched a video of a traveler on the airport who seemed to be Griner going by way of safety. The video confirmed a person eradicating a bundle from the traveler’s bag.
The screening on the airport occurred in February, in response to the Customs Service, elevating the chance that Griner has been in custody for no less than a number of days.
In keeping with the assertion, a prison case has been opened into the large-scale transportation of medicine, which may carry a sentence of as much as 10 years behind bars in Russia. The basketball participant was taken into custody whereas the investigation was ongoing, the officers mentioned.
The incident comes at a second of intense repression inside Russia, as Putin cracks down on inside dissent to a level analysts say they haven’t seen for the reason that days of the Soviet Communist Occasion.
Lately, U.S. officers have accused Russia of detaining and sentencing Americans on trumped-up fees. The detainment of a high-profile American might even be an effort by Russia to realize leverage within the political and financial standoff with Washington over the Ukraine invasion.
A State Division spokesman mentioned solely that the USA was conscious of experiences that Griner had been arrested and that the USA supplied consular companies to Individuals arrested abroad.
Colas, Griner’s agent, mentioned in her assertion, “As that is an ongoing authorized matter, we aren’t in a position to remark additional on the specifics of her case however can affirm that as we work to get her dwelling, her psychological and bodily well being stay our major concern.”
The W.N.B.A. mentioned in a press release that Griner “has the W.N.B.A.’s full help and our major precedence is her swift and protected return to the USA.”
The Phoenix Mercury; U.S.A. Basketball, which oversees the Olympics groups; and the W.N.B.A. players’ union additionally launched statements expressing help for Griner.
Many W.N.B.A. gamers compete in Russia, the place salaries are extra profitable, through the American league’s low season. Griner has performed for the Russian crew UMMC Ekaterinburg for a number of years.
Griner is about to earn $227,900 with the Mercury within the 2022 season, in response to Her Hoop Stats, simply shy of the W.N.B.A.’s most wage, $228,094. Some gamers have made considerably extra money with Russian groups, like Griner’s Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi, who experiences mentioned earned round $1.5 million with UMMC Ekaterinburg in 2015.
Some American gamers started planning to go away Russia following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine, and a W.N.B.A. spokeswoman mentioned on Saturday that every one W.N.B.A. gamers in addition to Griner had been out of Russia and Ukraine.
Griner, a local of Houston, grew to become a transformative expertise in school basketball all through her celebrated tenure at Baylor College.
Earlier than Griner, solely a handful of ladies gamers had ever dunked in a school sport. Griner’s dunks grew to become anticipated throughout her time at Baylor that included guiding the Girl Bears to a nationwide championship in 2012.
The Mercury chosen Griner with the highest choose within the 2013 draft and paired her with Taurasi, one other of the sport’s prime gamers. Phoenix captured the W.N.B.A.’s title in 2014.
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