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What Next: Where is Brittney Griner?

Slate Daily Feed

Slate

News, Business, Society & Culture

3.91.1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In February, WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested at an airport near Moscow for allegedly possessing hash oil in her carry-on luggage. She’s been held in a Russian prison ever since — and a court recently extended her detention until May 19. Why is Russia pursuing charges so vigorously against an American basketball player with a large Russian fanbase? And how long could it be until Griner gets to go home? Guest: Meredith Cash, sports reporter for Insider. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The video of American basketball star, Brittany Griner, as she's about to be detained

0:11.0

in Russia, is eerily silent and almost completely mundane.

0:16.2

Here we go, I got the clip.

0:21.0

But I asked Insiders Meredith Cash to watch it along with me anyway.

0:30.0

So I'm currently looking at Griner stepping through what looks to be a metastector or an

0:38.5

X-ray.

0:39.9

This video was shot on February 17th.

0:43.3

It shows Griner going through security in a Moscow airport when she suddenly pulled

0:48.4

aside.

0:49.6

The camera cuts to an overhead shot.

0:52.2

You can see an officer pulling one item and another out of her bag.

0:56.7

Once they were searching her bags, obviously, you could see that there was sort of a change

1:01.6

in everyone's sort of demeanor in the video, even though it's silent.

1:07.4

Russian customs officials say that they had a dog who stiffed out Griner's bag and that's

1:16.3

why they searched her belongings.

1:20.0

And they claim to have found a vape pen with cartridges containing cannabis oil.

1:31.8

A quick note here.

1:33.5

Drug laws in Russia are pretty different than they are in the US.

1:37.3

A Russian official called this cannabis oil a narcotic and said Griner was being investigated

1:43.0

for large-scale transportation of drugs.

1:47.2

That charge could mean about a decade in prison.

1:51.5

Does that follow to you that they would find a vape pen in her bag?

...

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