An anti American athlete as well
Let her rot in Russia
Womp womp
This is what happens when you make your big pleas in public and pressure Biden. You give Putin all the leverage he wanted.
Good job guys.
Now an emasculated Blinken has to beg Lavrov to take his call and make the trade for the Lord Of War.
Russia has basically indicated:
в очередь, сукины дети, в очередь
Basically translated as ‘(Get in line, sons of *itches, get in line).
Russians/Putin/Lavrov are in no hurry, at all, to make a deal.
>Yawn<
I think this entire saga is funnier than hell. Americans have known for like 50+ years that punishments for drug crimes in a foreign country are very harsh. Now all of a sudden this ONE WNBA “star” gets busted FOR DRUGS and Brandon and his monkeys are trying to free her. Brandon is too stupid to see Russia is just messing with him. WHY THE HELL IS THIS EVEN A STORY?
This may be harsh but, Do the Crime, Do the Time. Send her to a Siberian Gulag. Maybe she can teach basketball to the other prisoners.
Wait; will the player’s union allow a trade to happen during this time of the year?
What makes the Biden dummies think Russia would want their guy back?.... They may not!...............................
My guess is, The Big Guy himself, our sharp as a tack Chief Executive will get involve in the trade negotiations.
Then after hours of talk and palaver, maybe a couple of cocktails, then some real hard negotiation, a trade deal will be announced. Proclaimed by ABCNNBCBS as a huge win for The United States.
Something along the lines of:
2 aircraft carriers, a few F35s and ‘notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout for Griner’. /S (I hope)
Lyman Stone wrote smartly about it - https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1552406864113057794
Not only should the US not offer this deal, the US should not even try to secure Griner’s release. Holding Griner is awful for Russia.
Basically, Russia depends on a lot of technical expertise from other countries to keep a lot of its industries, especially oil/gas, operationally. Nowadays, the big consultancies won’t take that work. But they can still offer stupidly big payouts to individual experts.
Basically, all Russia can access now are individual mercenary experts traveling without the protection or backing of a firm or government.
Which is what Griner was doing: going mercenary for the Russians.
This is a common thing. Athletes in their off-season often make extra money in international settings. You basically represent yourself, stay out of competing with your home league, and make extra. The deal for the Russians is: they get prestige and expert training.
How does Russia work on improving its pool of basketball Olympians? Simple: by recruiting American ones.
Obviously, “Russian basketball” is not a huge share of Russia’s GDP. This is a trivial example. But it’s the same phenomenon. Russia *needs* to be able to hire mercs.
Mercenary soldiers, mercenary basketball players, mercenary oil rig technicians.... they need *individuals traveling without institutional backing* to be willing to come to Russia to take a fat paycheck for a short-term gig that everybody knows is not strictly legit.
And this is why Griner is a problem for Russia.
Griner was in Russia, as one of their foreign technical experts getting the nice paycheck for a short gig.
And they arrested her.
If you’re the oil rig guy in Australia being offered a big paycheck to do two weeks in Siberia on your vacation time to make an extra buck, the question of whether Russia retaliates against Australia by detaining you when you try to exit is a very real question!
And every time Griner’s detention is in the news it gets realer.
Griner of course is different from oil technicians: she’s more expendable to Russia and her politics much easier to mock.
But if you think none of the traveling-expert-technician-consultant crowd are reconsidering Russian contracts, boy do I have some news for you.
And worry about cases like Griner are part of way, for the same reason China arresting the think tank dude in retaliation for Meng sent shockwaves through everybody who ever collaborates with Chinese policy shops: there are LOTS of experts acutely aware of their expendability!
The longer the US lets Griner sit, the more Russia hurts.
Griner hurts too of course. That said, I would be sympathetic to Griner if she were like some important voice for change in Russia or helping starving kids or something. But, she was just there to entertain oligarchs.
Her whole reason for being in Russia was to get a ridiculous paycheck for playing in literal *Siberia* because a big Russian copper mine likes to use women’s basketball as part of its “friendly face” public relations campaigns.
I’m all for going to the mat to get Americans out of jail who are unfairly accused.
But 1) Griner is guilty of the crime she’s accused of, and it’s not like it’s some total mindbender of a crime. She brought drugs into a country where doing so was a crime.
2) I just don’t have sympathy for Americans who decide to, in this case kind of literally, play for the other side. She chose to be part of a propaganda operation for Putin’s buddies and it bit her in the bum. That really sucks.
It’s not a national security problem.
I’m all for using whatever reasonable and normal consular functions we have to secure her fair treatment as much as possible.
But releasing a hardened criminal arms dealer WHILE RUSSIA IS FIGHTING A WAR?
That’s stupid.
Don’t make a trade for Griner. Just keep it in the news how horribly Russia treats its mercenaries.
Putin is playing Biden like a cat with a mouse. He doesn’t care about the “merchant of death” guy, they are a dime a dozen in his world. Basket ball girl broke the law in Russia, she will be punished. She will also be a pawn for the next year or so. A reminder to those who break laws outside of the US. Although the US is starting to resemble the other parts of the world as well.
Okay, so this is what it looks like when “the grownups are in charge?” Ugh.
My prediction: She gets released January 20, 2025, as Trump is taking the oath of office.
Putin will extract an enormous,humiliating price for Biden to get his girl back. Putin will not only demand the release of multiple Russians but he will want yachts, bank deposits and real estate returned. Also cash for the cost of prosecuting,and imprisoning this lady. Yet Biden will pay to placate his gay and black political base. Probably would like to send Al Sharpton to send accompany her home. But street smart Sharpton would refuse to set a foot in Russia.
I kind of laugh at the audacity of the Biden regime. They have shown their total hate for Russia yet they are so un self aware they think that the Russians should jump to it over sending this America hater lawbreaker back when the Biden regime demands it. I mean it is important because she is a lesbian black girl/guy.
I know I probably would not even bother to ask for Griner back under the current circumstances.
If I were Russia, I would tell Biden that I will make the exchange when a successful peace deal in Ukraine is negotiated. Bye now.
A South African intelligence file from 2001 listed Bout as being ethnically Ukrainian in origin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Bout
WNBA Star is a oxymoron. Before this you could not find three people who knew who this guy is.
WNBA Star is a oxymoron. Before this you could not find three people who knew who this guy is.
We seized Russian oligarch yachts, airplanes and properties. Russians seize our druggy woman’s basketball star. Maybe we can trade a few yachts for Brittney.
I’m sure the Russians would like to get arms dealer Viktor Bout back, but may be willing to let him stay in jail a while longer just to make Biden twist in the wind. He’s a lot tougher than Brittney Griner, and can do time in an American prison a lot easier than Griner can in a Russian prison.