Hostage

    Back in February of this year, Brittney Griner was arrested in a Moscow airport on charges related to hashish oil possession and smuggling. Ms. Griner is an American citizen who plays professional basketball. She is a member of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), and has also played in the women's professional leagues in China, Europe, and most recently in Russia. It was in this capacity that she was returning to her Russian team while the WNBA here in the states was in its off-season. It is not uncommon for American women to play overseas to supplement their income. There is big money in women's professional basketball across the globe. Anyway, Griner pleaded guilty to the charges saying the hashish oil is medicinal and that she never meant to break any Russian laws. In August the Russian court sentenced her to 9 years in a Russian prison/labor camp. And while it is difficult to ascertain news about Ms. Griner (it is Russia, after all), it is assumed that she has been transferred to the penal colony designated IK-2 and has begun serving her time. 

    For what it's worth, Griner's basketball resume is Hall-of-Fame worthy. She has excelled and won at every level since high school. She is 6' 9" and is dominant. She has won multiple professional titles and MVPs from here to China. If you're a local Philly fan, think of her as Joel Embiid, except that she's actually won something and doesn't yap just to hear herself yap.

    So that's it, in a nutshell. Ms. Griner is officially a hostage and a pawn in the chess match that is US-Russian relations. And let's be clear; she's not a prisoner, she's a hostage. There is no rule of law in Russia...there is power. Like other Americans held in Russia, there wasn't much doubt that the trial was a sham. They gave her the maximum sentence for smuggling a few vials of hashish oil, without even blinking.

    When I first heard about this, way back when, my initial reaction was typically...well, me. I think I said, "Are you kidding me? What a dope! It's Russia! And not to put too fine a point on it, but you stand out. In a country of millions and millions of people, around 30,000 are black. Not only are you black, you're really tall! It's not like you can hide in a crowd! What were you thinking!!" However, after further contemplation, the fact that she's an American citizen being held IN RUSSIA, unclouded my mind. Again, what she did was frighteningly stupid. But 9 years? In the Gulag? You thought I hated the Russian government before? We're just getting warmed up. 

    First of all...Ms. Griner's arrest came exactly one week prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Were they waiting specifically for Griner at the airport? I don't know. But once they had her, the chess match had begun. In the beginning there was lots of talk about a prisoner swap. That would make sense. It used to happen all the time in US-Soviet relations going back to the Cold War. The Russians wanted an arms dealer named Viktor Bout. He's sold arms to everyone from Afghanistan to Yemen. Sometimes he sells arms to both sides of  a conflict. He doesn't care...as long as everyone pays up. He's in one of our prisons right now...deservedly so. But Moscow wanted him. The US also wanted a contractor who's been held in Russia for years; a man named Paul Whelan. He's been held since 2018 after being sentenced to 16 years for having classified information on a thumb drive. Yes, this was also a sham trial. Well, just when it seemed this deal was a go, Putin said, "Nyet!" He added a player to the deal; a man named Vadim Krasikov. Krasikov is a hitman/mass murderer currently doing time in Germany. The US contacted the Germans to see if they'd be up for this. I can only assume the German authorities said no. So, the United States wanted a basketball player and a security contractor. The Russians wanted a hitman/mass murderer and an arms dealer. For those of you who cling to the anti-intellectual idea that there is some sort of moral equivalency between the US and Russia...shut up!

    And here we are, months later. Ms. Griner is now a hostage in a gulag. Yes, a gulag. And from all accounts these gulags are not much different from the gulags that held historic and literary greatness like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. You want an idea what kind of conditions Griner is being subjected to right now, at this very moment? I invite you to read the aforementioned Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. It's a tale of death, dehumanization, starvation...and a lot of other adjectives I can't even think of. Remember the movie Brubaker starring Robert Redford where he's the head of the prison farm and he's trying to enact reforms because it's such a hell-hole? Well, that place was the Hilton compared to the gulags. 

    According to multiple people interviewed (some scholars and some who actually did time in the gulag and survived), Brittney Griner is going to work from 6:00 am to 9:00 pm every day probably sewing police uniforms. How's that for irony? At the same time, according to these sources, she will be abused verbally and physically for various reasons. First and foremost, because she is American, black, and gay. Russians have been taught since diapers that America and Americans are the spawns of Satan. Being black and gay is not much farther down the hate totem pole for Russians. It's also been reported that you are only allowed to speak Russian, especially in the female prisons. I don't know how much Russian Ms. Griner has learned while playing ball in Moscow, but I hope it's a lot. Said one former prisoner, "I think it's going to be specifically difficult for Brittney because she doesn't know Russian language and she cannot learn about the law that she has to obey in penal colony, and she cannot protect herself." Unbelievable...

    So unless the aforementioned prisoner swap comes back to the table, another American citizen is going to spend hard time in a gulag where her immediate future is, to say the least, bleak. Where "people die from hard physical labor and inability to access medical treatment that they need." I got mildly admonished from some people a while back for using the phrase "shit-hole." Well, sorry Mom. Ms. Griner is stuck in a "shit-hole" country where there is no rule of law, no individual liberty, and run by a megalomaniac who may or may not think he's actually Josef Stalin. She's a hostage.

write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com