Where is Brittney Griner?
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2022
⏱️ 30 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.
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Transcript
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| 0:35.5 | The video of American basketball star, Brittany Griner, as she's about to be detained in Russia, |
| 0:41.8 | is eerily silent and almost completely mundane. |
| 0:46.1 | Ah, here we go. I got the clip. |
| 0:50.6 | What I asked insiders Meredith Cash to watch it along with me anyway. |
| 0:59.7 | So I'm currently looking at Griner stepping through what looks to be a metamutic detector |
| 1:07.7 | or an X-ray. |
| 1:09.5 | This video was shot on February 17th. It shows Griner going through security in a Moscow airport |
| 1:16.9 | when she suddenly pulled aside. The camera cuts to an overhead shot. You can see an officer |
| 1:22.7 | pulling one item and another out of her bag. |
| 1:26.4 | Once they were searching her bags, obviously, you could see that there was sort of a change |
| 1:31.2 | in everyone's sort of demeanor in the video, even though it's silent. Russian customs |
| 1:37.7 | officials say that they had a dog who stiffed out Griner's bag and that's why they searched |
| 1:46.7 | her belongings. And they claim to have found a vape pen with cartridges containing cannabis |
| 1:56.5 | oil. |
| 2:01.3 | 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 |
... |
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