Nathan News

Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in a Russian courtroom on Thursday as the dispute over the American basketball star’s fate increasingly shifted to the diplomatic arena – a frightening prospect for Ms Griner’s supporters amid the rift between America and Moscow over the war in the Ukraine.

Appearing before a judge outside the Russian capital on the second day of her trial, Ms Griner said she had unwittingly brought a banned substance into the country because she was packing in a hurry. Russian authorities said they found vape cartridges containing 0.7 grams of cannabis oil in her luggage when Ms Griner arrived to play basketball in February, and she has since been detained facing 10 years in a penal colony.

“I would like to plead guilty, Your Honor. But there was no intention. I didn’t want to break the law,” Ms Griner said in English, which was then translated into Russian in the courtroom, according to a Reuters reporter.

Ms Griner told the court she would say more the next day of her trial, which is scheduled for July 14. She is charged with illegal drug possession and smuggling a “substantial amount”.

By pleading guilty, Ms. Griner may have hastened the conclusion of her case and paved the way for an accord with the United States, or perhaps a plea for clemency.

With a guilty verdict all but a foregone conclusion in a Russian legal system that heavily favors prosecutions, their best hope, experts say, is that the Biden administration will secure their freedom by freeing a Russian held in the United States releases. The name of one prisoner in particular crops up: Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence.

But such negotiations can only take place after the formalities of the Griner trial are settled, Russian officials say.

“It is clear that we have not completed the necessary legal procedures,” a deputy foreign minister, Sergei A. Ryabkov, told Russian news agencies on Thursday when asked about a possible exchange. “Until that happens, there are no nominal, formal or procedural grounds for further action.”

American officials insist they are doing everything in their power to secure the release of Ms. Griner, 31, a seven-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist and the first openly gay athlete to sign an endorsement deal with Nike . At Thursday’s hearing, Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, delivered a letter from President Biden to Ms. Griner.

“MS. Griner was able to read that letter,” Ms. Rood told reporters outside the courtroom. “I want to reiterate the U.S. government’s commitment at the highest level to bring Ms. Griner and all wrongfully detained U.S. citizens home safely .”

But with tensions between the United States and Russia at their worst in decades over President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Biden has few options for securing their freedom. This was underscored by Mr Ryabkov on Thursday when he made some of the most detailed comments of any Russian official on Ms Griner’s case during the nearly five months she has been in detention.

“Hype and publicity, for all the love of this genre among modern politicians, only gets in the way in this particular case,” Mr Ryabkov said. “That not only distracts from the case, but also disturbs in the truest sense of the word. That’s why silence is the order of the day here.”

However, he indicated that Moscow was interested in negotiating Ms Griner’s fate, saying it would help “a serious reading by the American side of the signals they are receiving from Russia, from Moscow, through specialized channels.”

Mr Ryabkov has not specified what those signals were, although Russian state media have suggested the Kremlin may be interested in prosecuting the American athlete against Mr Bout, 55, a former Soviet military officer who made a fortune in the global arms trade before him has become involved in a federal covert operation.

Without a deal, Ms. Griner could face years in prison.

Arseny Levinson, a Russian lawyer who has been involved in cases similar to Ms Griner’s, said her case was “preposterous” because she clearly had no criminal intent. But while their law enforcement has political overtones, it is in many ways typical of Russia, where the law enforcement system often “mimics the fight against drug smuggling,” Mr Levinson said.

In most cases, Mr Levinson said, Russian courts would give suspended sentences to people accused of Ms Griner’s crime. But their prospects may be bleaker, he said, because suspended sentences against non-citizens are harder to enforce.

“Typically, foreigners are punished much harder than Russians,” said Levinson, who works for a nonprofit group that helps drug suspects.

A Russian official noted earlier this week that there is a route Ms Griner could take. “No one is stopping Brittney Griner from pursuing the appeal process and also from seeking clemency,” a State Department spokesman said.

Hours after her guilty plea on Thursday, it appeared her advisors were laying the groundwork for it.

“Given the nature of their case, the insignificant amount of BG’s substance and personality, and history of positive contributions to global and Russian sport, the defense hopes that the lawsuit will be considered by the court as a mitigating circumstance and that there will be no substantive verdict,” her legal team said in a statement.

Even if the United States and Russia agreed to an exchange to bring Ms. Griner home, such a deal could be years away. Trevor R. Reed, an ailing former US Marine being held in Russia for alleged assault, was released in a prisoner swap in April, more than two years after his arrest.

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations who has campaigned for years for his nonprofit organization to free hostages, has been involved in months of quiet but intense diplomacy to free Mr. Reed. Mr Richardson is now working on Ms Griner’s case, as well as that of a former Marine, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed in Russia since 2018.

Mickey Bergman, executive director of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, said in an email that Ms. Griner’s guilty plea was understandable. “We believe that every prisoner in a situation like this needs to do whatever they feel can help them survive the ordeal,” Mr. Bergman said in an email. “She’s fighting for her life”

Ms Rood, the American diplomat who attended Thursday’s court hearing, said Ms Griner told her that “she eats well, she can read books”.

“Given the circumstances, she is doing well,” said Ms. Rood.

Ms Griner’s lawyer, Aleksandr Boikov, said in a comment via a messaging app that his client told the court on Thursday that she was “unintentionally carrying substances banned in Russia”.

“She was in a hurry to pack,” he said in a phone interview. “Bullets turned up in their luggage due to carelessness.”

After her trial began last week, Ms. Griner sent a handwritten letter to Mr. Biden asking him not to “forget” her and other American inmates abroad.

On Wednesday, Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Ms. Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, according to a statement released by the White House. During the call, the statement said, the president read a draft of a letter he intended to send to Brittney Griner. He also said his government is “looking at every avenue to bring Brittney home.”

Cherelle Griner had publicly expressed frustration at the efforts of Mr. Biden and his administration to secure her wife’s release.

In a statement Wednesday, Cherelle Griner said she was grateful to Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris “for the time they have spent with me and for the commitment they have shown to bringing BG home.”

The United States government has declared Brittney Griner “wrongly imprisoned” and has said it will work toward her release regardless of the outcome of the trial.

Brittney Griner’s WNBA team, Phoenix Mercury, held a rally Wednesday in support of her.

“What and how I feel today is a deeper emotion than pain,” Cherelle Griner said at the rally. “I am frustrated. I am frustrated that it has been 140 days since my wife has been able to speak to me, our family and friends. I am frustrated that my wife is not doing justice. I know you are all frustrated too , that’s why you’re here.”

Cherelle Griner asked those attending the rally, a few hundred fans according to The Associated Press, to make sure the Biden administration knows “they have our support to do whatever it takes” to get her wife home.

Brittney Griner’s communications with her family and friends in the United States are limited to letters. One of her Mercury teammates, forward Brianna Turner, recently texted her, recalling memories of their time together. “One of my favorite moments wasn’t even on the pitch,” Ms. Turner said. “We drove to Indiana and rented Lime scooters and just rode downtown.”

Ms. Turner also told her teammate that she would be an honorary All-Star this season. Since Ms. Griner has been incarcerated since February, she has not played in the WNBA this season.

“And BG has a great sense of humor – she told me she would probably have the worst stat line and not be in the game,” Ms Turner said, laughing.

Then she became serious again: “We have to bring her back home. She deserves to be home again. She needs to be with her family and friends again.”