Where is Brittney Griner?
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
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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.
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Transcript
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| 0:56.9 | So, I'm currently looking at Griner stepping through a what looks to be a metamutector |
| 1:07.6 | or an X-ray. This video was shot on February 17th. It shows Griner going through security |
| 1:15.3 | in a Moscow airport when she suddenly pulled aside. The camera cuts to an overhead shot. |
| 1:21.8 | You can see an officer pulling one item and another out of her bag. Once they were searching |
| 1:27.1 | her bags, obviously, you could see that there was sort of a change in everyone's sort |
| 1:33.3 | of demeanor in the video, even though it's silent. Russian customs officials say that they |
| 1:39.4 | had a dog who stiffed out Griner's bag, and that's why they searched her belongings. |
| 1:49.7 | And they claim to have found a vape pen with cartridges containing cannabis oil. |
| 2:01.4 | A quick note here. Drug laws in Russia are pretty different than they are in the US. A Russian |
| 2:07.2 | official called this cannabis oil a narcotic and said Griner was being investigated for |
| 2:12.8 | large-scale transportation of drugs. That charge could mean about a decade in prison. |
| 2:21.1 | Does that follow to you that they would find a vape pen in her bag? Like, is someone who's |
| 2:25.0 | covered Brittany Griner as a person? |
| 2:27.5 | I mean, I think it's possible. The thing that strikes me as odd is that Brittany Griner |
| 2:34.9 | has been traveling back and forth from Russia since 2014, very, very consistently. I mean, |
| 2:40.4 | she spends at least half, if not the majority of her year overseas, and she's been playing |
... |
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