The people who become Vladimir Putin’s pawns never realize the vicious game ensnaring them.
Until it’s too late.
WNBA star Brittney Griner made the mistake of carrying in her luggage vape cartridges with a minuscule amount of cannabis oil as she traveled to Russia to play basketball in February. Nine months later, Griner found herself in a penal colony outside Moscow on a drug possession conviction that hardly warranted the nine-year sentence she began serving.
On Thursday, Griner’s unimaginable ordeal came to an end. A prisoner swap negotiated between the Kremlin and President Joe Biden sent Griner on her way home in exchange for Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known to the world as the “Merchant of Death.”
Griner’s reunification with her wife, Cherelle Griner, her family and teammates on the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury squad will surely be celebrated across America. At the same time, Americans should also celebrate Griner’s steely courage — she was up against a Russian leader with a notorious disdain for the rule of law, who is obsessed with what transactional gain he can extract from the plight of others.