Russian state media has released the first image of WNBA star Brittney Griner following her arrest for allegedly having cannabis oil cartridges in her luggage while checking into a flight out of the country last month.
Video of Griner’s arrest at a Moscow airport in February was also released, CNN reported.
Griner is being held at an unknown location, but it is believed to be in Moscow. She faces several years in prison for drug smuggling in what is quickly becoming a diplomatic emergency for the U.S.
The 31-year-old Phoenix Mercury star also plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian team, during the WNBA offseason. Many WNBA players supplement their income by playing abroad, as well. All of the WNBA players who had been in Russia have left the country.
In the undated photo, which was broadcast on Russian TV, Griner is holding a white sheet of paper with an illegible message written on it, possibly her name.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Griner and two other Americans are currently jailed in Russia, but the ongoing invasion of Ukraine will make negotiations between the U.S. and Russia that much more difficult.
“Whatever kind of bargain could normally be worked out at the political level is going to be much harder to work out right now,” Tom Firestone, a former resident legal adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, told Yahoo Sports. “We’re as close to cutting off diplomatic relations as you can be without actually cutting off diplomatic relations. That’s not a good environment to negotiate the release of a detainee.”
The State Department has encouraged all Americans to depart Russia immediately.
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