The ReidOut/MSNBC
In her first cable interview since returning home, Brittney Griner shared details about her experience in a Russian labor camp.
When she went to Russia to play basketball during the WNBA off-season in 2022, Griner was arrested for carrying cannabis cartridges in her luggage. She claims she accidentally packed them with her clothes and knew about Russian laws.
Although the mistake seemed harmless, Griner was held for months while awaiting sentencing. The situation was made more complicated by the war in Ukraine, which likely led the Russian government to be stricter with her.
She was eventually sentenced to nine years in a labor camp but was later released when the U.S. government agreed to exchange a Russian arms dealer for her. Altogether, she spent 10 months in detention. Viktor Bout Griner said she expected the war to make her situation more difficult and prepared for the worst.
On MSNBC’s The ReidOutShe explained, "That changed everything. Any hope I had for a quiet agreement or trade disappeared when they invaded. It was another moment of realization that it's all over. I thought, 'I need to get ready for the long haul.'"
Being a Black queer woman added to her anxiety. Griner said that at one point, guards tried to put her in a cell for men.
“I was scared at the thought of going to that jail because I was thinking, ‘What are they going to do?’ And I soon found out one of the things they tried was telling me to go into a men’s cell. I refused, and then another guard said something in Russian, and they eventually took me to the women’s side. It felt like a game, and I knew everything was against me.”
Even when placed in the correct cell, Griner still felt uneasy about how she was treated in the prison.
She mentioned, “They definitely knew who I was because I would hear things like ‘the American,’ ‘the basketball American.’ They would lift the little hole to peek at me at all hours and laugh. I felt like I was being observed like a zoo animal.'
In her first cable interview since returning home, Brittney Griner shared details about her experience in a Russian labor camp.
