Ehe spokesman for Kremlin, Dmitry Peskovdenied this Monday that the American player Brittney Griner be a hostage of the Russian judicial system.
“We can’t call him hostage. Why should we call him a hostage? I violated Russian law. Now they are criminally pursuing her,” Peskov said in an interview with MSNBC.
Peskov denied that Griner’s remand imprisonment Russia sends a “horrible message” to the world.
In the opinion of the presidential spokesman, what is a horrible message is “the attempt to introduce prohibited substances in the country”.
“She is being prosecuted under Russian law. Not only in Russia there are such severe laws in this field. There are many countries where drugs cannot be brought. That is prosecuted by law. And we can’t do anything,” he added.
Recently, the Russian Justice extended another 18 days the precautionary measure against Griner, who has been in a Moscow remand prison for almost four months.
The family of the basketball player has been addressed US President Joe Bidento achieve Griner’s release, while both the WNBA and the NBA have also turned to demand his release.
At the time, Russian media reported that Russia and the United States negotiated the exchange of Griner for Russian arms dealer Vktor But, known as the “merchant of death” and serving time in a US prison.
Grinera player for UGMK Yekaterinburg, was arrested on February 17th at Sheremtevo airport in Moscow, as customs officials found cannabis oil in his bags.
Next, the basketball player, who maintains her innocence, was arrested for drug smuggling, an arrest that Washington considers unjustified.
The American, who has played for the Russian team since 2015, can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prisonsince in Russia it is prohibited by law to enter the country with cannabis.
The UGMK, trained by the Spanish Miguel Méndez, Spanish coach since 2021, has not made any public statement in this regard.
Like other American players, Griner took advantage of the months when there is no WNBA competition to play in Europe, where he has a salary of more than a million dollars, four times more than the maximum in the US.
The former US ambassador to the UN, Bill Richardson, negotiates the exchange of the 31-year-old player, double world and Olympic champion with his country.
Russia and the US recently exchanged US student Trevor Reed, sentenced to nine years in prison for resisting arrest, for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, sentenced in the US to 20 years for drug smuggling.
