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I wish I really knew how to play poker. Then I wish I could play against Obama and Biden because, as they drip with desperation, they fold oh so easily. Joe Biden just made the worst trade since 2014, when Barack Obama traded five high value terrorists (the Taliban Dream Team) for a traitor (Bowe Bergdahl). I still remember Bergdahl's father in his best Islamic beard in the Rose Garden. Before that, the worst trade was the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth. Biden traded an arms dealer (the "Merchant of Death") convicted of conspiring to kill Americans for an America-hating...

Tucker Carlson said NBC's Andrea Mitchell, reporting on Griner release, said "The Kremlin gave the White House the choice of either Griner or Whelan - or none." This has been scrubbed, just like when NBC reporter said Paul Pelosi opened door when David DePape "invaded," and didn't try to escape.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has defended the Biden administration for exchanging notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner in a deal brokered by Saudi Arabia that left Marine veteran Paul Whelan languishing in a Russian jail. In one of her last press conferences as Speaker of the House, Pelosi suggested that the White House had no other choice. The administration faces criticism for swapping the WNBA star for the former KGB agent who tried to arm the Taliban and al Qaeda. Griner has been detained by Moscow since February on marijuana-linked drug charges, and was recently sentenced...

Former President Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden’s Brittney Griner prisoner swap as “stupid” and “unpatriotic embarrassment.” Issuing the statement on Truth Social, Trump said the swap was a bad deal because Biden traded an ex-WNBA basketball star for notorious Russian arms dealers Viktor Bout, “one of the biggest arms dealers anywhere in the world.” Trump said the trade was especially grievous because Griner has been “openly” hateful towards her own nation.

President Joe Biden on Thursday celebrated the news that his administration had successfully secured the release of WNBA basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained in Russia. “Brittney is an incomparable athlete,” Biden said, noting she was a two-time Olympic Gold medalist for the United States. Griner was arrested in February at a Moscow airport by Russian officials for possession of cannabis vape cartridges.

It is a “deeply disturbing” decision to release Russian arms deal Viktor Bout, Democrat Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said on Thursday, although he praised the news of former WNBA star Brittney Griner coming back to America as part of the Biden administration’s controversial prisoner swap. The former WNBA star was arrested in Russia in February and pleaded guilty to drug charges — possession of cannabis vape cartridges — at a Moscow airport. She was ultimately sentenced to nine years in prison for smuggling cannabis into the country. But, she has now been released in turn for a convicted arms dealer,...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) predicted on Thursday that leftist President Joe Biden’s decision to trade imprisoned basketball player Brittney Griner for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “merchant of death,” would result in people dying as rogue states interpreted the move as open season to arrest Americans. Biden announced and the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday that Griner and Bout were both free.

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

MOSCOW, Russia — Houston native and WNBA star Brittney Griner has been freed as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia, according to the White House. Griner was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, labeled the “Merchant of Death.” This was a one-for-one swap. American and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan was not part of the exchange. [Snip]

Imprisoned American basketball star Brittney Griner has reportedly been taken to a penal colony in Mordovia, a Russian region roughly 300 miles southeast of Moscow, to serve her nine-year sentence on drug charges. Griner has been moved to IK-2 in Yavas, one of several penal colonies in the region, according to Reuters. The WNBA All-Star's legal team confirmed the report on Thursday afternoon. 'We can confirm that Brittney began serving her sentence at IK-2 in Mordovia,' read her attorneys' statement. 'We visited her early this week. Brittney is doing as well as could be expected and trying to stay strong...

A member of the Russian feminist group Pussy Riot, who spent almost two years in a penal colony, says she expects WNBA star Brittney Griner will experience labour camp-type conditions as she arrives at an unnamed facility where she could potentially spend the next nine years.In an interview with National Public Radio, Maria Alyokhina of the Moscow-based feminist protest and performance art group said Griner should expect forced labour, living in barracks with beds for 80 to 100 women, bathing once a week and having very few, if any, amenities. “For 100 women, there are like three toilets and no...

MOSCOW — Jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner has been moved from a detention center outside of Moscow and is being sent to a Russian penal colony to begin serving out her nine-year sentence on drug smuggling charges, her lawyers said Wednesday. A statement released by Griner’s legal team says they do not have information on Griner’s “exact current location or her final destination.” The statement also said that in accordance with “standard Russian procedure,” they anticipate Russian authorities will notify Griner’s legal team and the U.S. embassy of Griner’s whereabouts upon arrival at her destination.

Russia is moving detained U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner to a penal colony, her lawyers said Wednesday, drawing a sharp rebuke from the White House. Griner, convicted for possession of a small quantity of cannabis oil and given a nine-year prison sentence, was transferred out of a detention center on Nov. 4, her legal team said. She "is now on her way to a penal colony," lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov said in a statement. They said Russia generally sends notifications of transforming prisoners by mail, taking up to two weeks. "We do not have any information on her...

WNBA star Brittney Griner, who has been imprisoned in Russia for 260 days, has reportedly met with US embassy officials. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed on Thursday (3 November) that the basketball player had met with embassy officials as part of negotiations for her release. **SNIP** Since her imprisonment, a mass campaign by various humanities groups and fellow WNBA players has urged the US government to bring her home. Jean-Pierre said during the statement that the government had “made a significant offer to the Russians to resolve the current unacceptable and wrongful detentions of American citizens Brittney Griner...

The sports world remains heartbroken over the developments with Brittney Griner. This week, the WNBA star's appeal was rejected by a Russian court, meaning she's set to serve her entire nine-year prison sentence, barring a trade with the United States. Life in a full-time Russian prison sounds pretty rough. "Brittney Griner will enter a system of isolation, grueling labor and psychological torment when she is transferred to a penal colony, the successor to the infamous Russian gulag, to fulfill a nine-year sentence, former prisoners and advocates say," NBC News reported this week. Earlier in her prison sentence, Griner was reportedly...

Brittney Griner will enter a system of isolation, grueling labor and psychological torment when she is transferred to a penal colony, the successor to the infamous Russian gulag, to fulfill a nine-year sentence handed down Tuesday in Moscow, former prisoners and advocates said. “Conditions in prisons and detention centers varied but were often harsh and life threatening,” a 2021 State Department report on Russian human rights abuses said. “Overcrowding, abuse by guards and inmates, limited access to health care, food shortages, and inadequate sanitation were common in prisons, penal colonies, and other detention facilities.” The report notes that “physical and...

A Russian court rejected Brittney Griner’s appeal of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession on Tuesday. The court ruled to uphold the sentence handed down to the WNBA superstar. However, in the ruling, the court stated that the time Griner will have to serve in prison will be recalculated with her time in pre-trial detention taken into account. One day in pre-trial detention will be counted as 1.5 days in prison, which means Griner will serve around eight years in prison unless the U.S. and Russia come to an agreement on a potential prisoner swap in the future.

WNBA star Brittney Griner’s appeal hearing in Moscow has been set for Oct. 25 after she was sentenced to nine years in prison for possessing cannabis oil at a Moscow airport. The Associated Press reported on Monday that a regional court in Moscow will proceed with the basketball star’s appeal. Griner, a member of the WNBA’s 25th-anniversary team, was convicted on August 4 after pleading guilty. Although Griner has admitted to having vape cartridges in her carry-on luggage, her legal team plans to present written statements that the cannabis oil was medically prescribed to help Griner treat pain she sustained...

More than a month has passed since Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison, and the WNBA star is "stressed" as she waits for news on her appeal process or a possible prisoner exchange, her lawyer tells PEOPLE. With no new updates on her next possible steps, "Brittney is stressed and very much concerned with the future," her lawyer Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners, says. Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison on Aug. 4 on charges of smuggling drugs into the country, just below the maximum sentence of 10...

**SNIP** When she was arrested, Griner was returning to Russia to join Jones on their team, UMMC Yekaterinburg, for the playoffs. Griner has starred for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury since 2013 and soon after also joined Yekaterinburg, among a handful of clubs owned by oligarchs who pay top salaries for pride and political reasons. Those clubs are not seen as an option right now because of Griner’s detention and the war in Ukraine. “It’s taken some money off the table for some people,” said Mike Cound, an agent who represents dozens of professional women’s basketball players. “It’s lowered the overall...