Basketball star Brittney Griner will be detained until at least May 19 according to reports from the Russian news agency Tass.
Griner, 31, is being held on drug charges which could carry a sentence of 10 years in prison.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist for the United States plays for Russian basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg in the winter while her Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team, the Phoenix Mercury, competes in the spring and summer. Player salaries for female basketball stars can be up to four or five times as much in Russia as they are in the WNBA. The 2022 WNBA season begins May 6.
She was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport in February after Russian authorities found vape cartridges in her luggage. They were said to contain cannabis oil.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said his staff is “doing everything we can to support her and her family, and to work with them to do everything we can to see she is treated appropriately and to seek her release.”
The State Department has repeatedly urged all U.S. citizens to leave Russia, and warned them the U.S. embassy in Moscow has “severe limitations” on its ability to help.
Griner is the only WNBA player who did not leave Russia or Ukraine after the Russian invasion in late February.
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