{"id":1587786,"date":"2022-08-03T19:24:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T23:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1587786"},"modified":"2022-08-03T19:25:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T23:25:04","slug":"explainer-who-is-brittney-griner-and-what-is-her-fate-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/explainer-who-is-brittney-griner-and-what-is-her-fate-in-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Explainer-Who is Brittney Griner and what is her fate in Russia?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexplainer-who-is-brittney-griner-and-what-is-her-fate-in-russia%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1587786&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>(Reuters) \u2013     Who is Brittney Griner and what is her fate? <\/p>\n<p>WHO IS BRITTNEY GRINER?<\/p>\n<p>Brittney Griner, 31, is a two-time Olympic champion and star player in the Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WBNA).<\/p>\n<p>Standing 206 cm (6 feet 9 inches) tall, the Texan was selected first overall by the Phoenix Mercury in the 2013 Women\u2019s National Basketball Association (WBNA) draft.<\/p>\n<p>Griner, known as \u201cBG\u201d to basketball fans, has played for UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia during the WNBA offseason since 2014. The club has drawn other top U.S. basketball players including Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Candace Parker. <\/p>\n<p>WHY WAS SHE DETAINED IN RUSSIA?<\/p>\n<p>Griner was detained at Moscow\u2019s Sheremetyevo airport on Feb. 17 with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes. <\/p>\n<p>Griner was detained upon crossing customs to catch her flight to Ekaterinburg, a city 1,400 km (870 miles) east of Moscow. <\/p>\n<p>She was flying there to join her team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, for the playoffs after spending time at home in the United States. <\/p>\n<p>WHAT HAS HER DEFENCE ARGUED?<\/p>\n<p>Griner pleaded guilty to the drugs charges against her but insists she did not intend to break Russian law. <\/p>\n<p>She testified that she did not understand how the cartridges could have ended up in her luggage. She speculated that she could have inadvertently packed them as she rushed to make her flight. <\/p>\n<p>Griner had a prescription in the United States for medical marijuana to relieve the pain from chronic injuries. Medical marijuana is a common treatment method among athletes where the substance is legal given that it has fewer side effects than some painkillers. <\/p>\n<p>WHAT HAS THE RESPONSE BEEN IN THE UNITED STATES?        <\/p>\n<p>U.S. officials and prominent athletes say Griner has been wrongly detained and have called for her immediate release, saying she is being used as a political pawn.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. President Joe Biden called Griner\u2019s wife Cherelle last month to tell her he was working to secure her release from Russia as soon as possible. <\/p>\n<p>Prominent U.S. athletes also have expressed their support for Griner. Megan Rapinoe of the women\u2019s U.S. national soccer team wore a white suit jacket with the initials \u201cBG\u201d embroidered on her lapel as she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the country, from Biden last month. <\/p>\n<p>WHAT COULD HAPPEN AFTER THE VERDICT?<\/p>\n<p>Griner\u2019s defence team said it was \u201clegally possible\u201d for her to be swapped after the court renders a verdict. <\/p>\n<p>U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that Washington had made Moscow a \u201csubstantial offer\u201d for the release of American citizens held in Russia, including Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan. <\/p>\n<p>A source said that Washington was willing to exchange convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, known as the \u201cMerchant of Death\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Russian officials said that no deal had been agreed to yet, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned Washington that \u201cmegaphone diplomacy\u201d would not lead to results when negotiating a potential prisoner swap. <\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Angus MacSwan)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?attachment_id=2733826\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI72135-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI72135-VIEWIMAGE\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/?attachment_id=2733829\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI72133-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI72133-VIEWIMAGE\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Reuters) \u2013 Who is Brittney Griner and what is her fate? WHO IS BRITTNEY GRINER? Brittney Griner, 31, is a two-time Olympic champion and star player in the Women\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1587786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1587786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1587786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1587786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1587786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1587786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}