As she prepares to return to the WNBA courts next month, Brittney Griner also announced the publication of a book about his ten-month detention in Russia. A book that should be released in the spring of 2024.
“That day (in February) marked the beginning of an unimaginable period of my life, which I am only now ready to share”explained the basketball player in a press release published by her lawyer. “The main reason I went back to work in Russia that day was to make my wife, my family and my teammates proud. After ten incredibly difficult months in detention, I am grateful to have been rescued and returned home. Readers will discover my story and understand why I am so grateful for the support people around the world have given me. »
As a reminder, Brittney Griner explained that she had packed her bags too quickly, forgetting cartridges for electronic cigarettes containing cannabis oil, a product legal in the United States but prohibited in Russia.
Caught in the whirlwind of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Russian-American tensions were at their height, the basketball player thus found herself in a long diplomatic trap, before finally being “exchanged” against the merchant arms Viktor Bout, after long months in Russian prisons.
Brittney Griner says she hopes her as-yet-untitled book will raise awareness of the plight of other Americans detained abroad, such as Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia last month and charged with espionage, or Paul Whelan, a corporate security official jailed in Russia for espionage.
Brittney Griner’s lawyer assures that the basketball player will return “in great detail about the harrowing experience of her wrongful detention (according to the US State Department) and the difficulty of navigating the Byzantine Russian legal system, in a language she did not speak”. She also wants to describe “the austere and surreal time she lived in a foreign prison and the terrifying aspects of daily life in a penal colony for women”.
