WNBA player Britney Griner arrested in Russia: updated: wokes expected sellout crowd, nope lol

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American Detainee Marc Fogel Arrives in U.S. Following Release From Russian Custody
Arrested in 2021, the schoolteacher was serving a 14-year prison sentence

https://www.wsj.com/world/marc-foge...b?st=VTc54e&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

 

Marc Fogel, Who Was Imprisoned in Russia for Having Medical mar1juana, Is Freed
Fogel's story closely mirrored that of Brittney Griner's. But he did not receive the same urgency from the Biden administration, even though he was arrested six months prior.

https://reason.com/2025/02/11/marc-...russia-for-having-medical-mar1juana-is-freed/

excerpt:

Fogel's story closely mirrored that of Brittney Griner's, the WNBA basketball player who was sentenced to almost a decade in a Russian prison after law enforcement found hash oil in her luggage. She was ultimately freed in December 2022 after President Joe Biden's administration secured a prisoner exchange in return for Viktor Bout, a convicted arms dealer. But Fogel, who is in his 60s, did not attract the same national attention, nor did he receive the same urgency from the White House, despite the close parallels between their stories and that Fogel was arrested six months before Griner.

"That hurt," he wrote in a letter to his wife, Jane, after news of the Griner prisoner swap broke. "Teachers are at least as important as bballers." Fogel was also left off of the large-scale prisoner exchange executed this past summer, which freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a bogus espionage case; Vladimir Kara-Murza, a journalist and vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was arrested in April 2022 and sentenced to 25 years in a penal colony for offenses related to treason; Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-American journalist for Radio Free Europe who was arrested in October 2023 and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent; and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was taken into custody in December 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison in another sham spying case.

Fogel was classified as wrongfully detained in December of last year, a little under 3.5 years after his arrest.

"We are beyond grateful, relieved, and overwhelmed that after more than three years of detention, our father, husband, and son, Marc Fogel, is finally coming home," Fogel's family said in a statement. "Thanks to the unwavering leadership of President Trump, Marc will soon be back on American soil, free where he belongs. This has been the darkest and most painful period of our lives, but today, we begin to heal."

Still detained in Russia is American citizen Ksenia Karelina, who was arrested in January 2024 during a visit to see her grandmother and other members of her family in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where she was born. Law enforcement reportedly flagged Karelina—whom the U.S. State Department just recently classified as wrongfully detained—at the airport after noting she had a U.S. passport; the Federal Security Service searched her phone, found a $51.80 donation she made in the U.S. to a pro-Ukraine charity, and eventually arrested her for "petty hooliganism." She was ultimately sentenced to 12 years in prison after that charge was later upped to treason—yet another example of the country's increasingly severe and despotic crackdown on wrongthink.
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more at the link

 

I can't stand Griner because she talked trash about America until she needed our help and we certainly shouldn't have traded the merchant of death for her. The mar1juana rule there is ridiculous but if you're stupid enough to travel to another country and break their laws you deserve what you get. It's absurd she got special treatment and was released before Fogel. To this day I still don't understand why she got so much attention. She's not famous. Before the arrest I bet if you asked 100 people on the street maybe one would know who she was. Outside of Texas probably zero

 

Russia frees U.S. citizen ahead of high-stakes talks on Ukraine
Kalob Byers, 28, of West Virginia was arrested this month on drug charges over cannabis gummies found in his luggage, Russian state media reported.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/18/american-kalob-byers-freed-russia/

excerpt:

Russia has freed an American citizen who was arrested this month on drug smuggling charges. The move came ahead of talks Tuesday between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Kalob Byers, a 28-year-old from West Virginia, was released to U.S. authorities. “His release is nothing short of a miracle and many people were involved in making it happen,” David Kelly, deputy speaker of West Virginia’s House of Delegates, said in a statement Monday.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Byers was detained along with his Russian fiancée, Naida Mambetova, at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport on Feb. 7, after customs officials said they found cannabis gummies in his luggage. Byers was accused of attempting to smuggle drugs into the country, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The Russian business daily RBC reported that the pair met while Mambetova studied in the United States and that they had arrived in Russia to obtain a marriage license.

It was not immediately known when Byers would land on American soil or whether his fiancée was released.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sought Monday to link the Byers release to the talks in Saudi Arabia. In response to a question about Byers, Peskov told reporters that Moscow expects to discuss “restoring the entire complex of Russian-American relations” during the talks, adding that “certain events can be viewed in this context,” according to the Associated Press.

On Tuesday, Trump administration officials — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff — were meeting with a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It is the first such high-level U.S.-Russian meeting since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Last week, Russia freed American teacher Marc Fogel, who had spent more than three years in prison on drug charges, in a prisoner swap. The United States released Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency kingpin, in exchange.

Fogel was arrested in August 2021 when Russian customs officers said they found mar1juana and cannabis oil in his luggage, which his family said had been recommended by his American doctors for back problems.

U.S. women’s professional basketball star, Brittney Griner, had been similarly arrested in early 2022 on smuggling charges after Russian customs found cartridges containing a small amount of medically prescribed hash oil in her luggage. She was released in December that year in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
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more at the link

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Because people know Griner. Unfortunately the government may have felt more pressure to get Griner released.

Unfortunately that's how the world works. We don't care when someone is murdered but when OJ's ex wife iswe all watch the trial.

Surely you understand that

 

Delete

 

would.