Griner shouldn’t be in prison. What price can the US pay?
Russia’s detention of Brittney Griner has rallied American sentiment. The professional basketball player for the WNBA’S Phoenix Mercury and Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg is stuck in a familiar, nasty game in which certain countries seize Americans to demand concessions.
Ordinary citizens and celebrities travel to dangerous countries and sometimes unwittingly yield the hostage gift to nefarious regimes. Thoughts of where they were going and what could happen to them just don’t occur. As Brittney Griner said, “There was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law.”
One would hope that an American could be expected to realize that bringing illegal drugs into Russia is recklessly dangerous. Our State Department makes that very clear. Perhaps the WNBA, whose teams pay salaries in the range of $200,000, should warn its players of the hazards of travel to Russia where they can earn multiples of their WNBA salaries. But the end result, our empathy notwithstanding, is a popular player making a foolish mistake, putting herself in jeopardy and causing a problem for her country.
Predatory hostage-taking and oblivious or overconfident American travelers are a dangerous combination, leaving entanglements without ready exit. In Griner’s case, personal contrition appears genuine. Public concern and support are understandable. Patience is in short supply. Anxiety and discomfort for the hostage fester.
The president and secretary of state have both said they are doing all they can to win Griner’s release, but that doesn’t mean a resolution is easily at hand. Presidents, diplomats and Congress understandably hate hostage situations. Their options are limited. The prospect of prolonged custody understandably raises anxieties. Senators and representatives are implored to “do something.”
When it’s your spouse or brother or sister, the absence of avenues for effective action mean little and only exacerbate anger and panic. As a Senate staffer I dealt with truly distraught constituents who begged for urgent, immediate action and could not believe a senator was unable to intervene to get someone released.
There is a familiar warning that when you leave the United States you cannot take the U.S. Constitution and American laws with you. Its corollary is that foreign countries dislike challenges to their judicial processes. Some take pleasure in the attention that comes from holding a hostage. Others are eager to extract a price for release. Russia undoubtedly delights in hearing Americans express anxiety regarding Griner.
What should the United States do?
Plead for release? Threaten military action? Pay money? Grant a trade concession? Search for someone in the U.S. justice system to release in exchange?
I once handed Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko a stack of several thousand American signatures requesting release of political prisoners as then Connecticut Sen. Abraham Ribicoff requested clemency. Gromyko’s disdain competed with his disinterest. He set the documents aside and said quietly the cases would be dealt with according to Soviet law. End of discussion.
American officials have their hands full with journalists taken captive simply for practicing their trade, or people inadvertently involved in political controversies, such as former Marines Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan, also detained in Russia.
Cases can end badly. A horrifying example is Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student imprisoned in North Korea. Accused of taking a sign from his hotel and charged with “subversion,” he spent over a year in prison, returned in a “vegetative state” and died soon after he got home.
Unforced errors such as Griner’s are especially frustrating because they could have been avoided. She has pled guilty to breaking Russian law by bringing hashish into the country. That cannabis might be excused in the U.S. is exactly the sad point. Whether by inadvertence, ignorance or expectation of special consideration, her action played right into Russian hands.
A hostage has to live with the consequences if the U.S. grants concessions for release. One remarkable suggestion has been that the U.S. release the infamous “Merchant of Death,” Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer, in exchange for Griner. Bout is justly serving a 25-year sentence in U.S. federal prison for conspiring to kill Americans and aiding terrorists.
The lack of equivalence between transporting some hashish oil and responsibility for countless murders is obvious. And who would want their actions to result in enabling Viktor Bout to resume his vicious profession?
Griner should not be in prison. The public cry for action is understandable but often oblivious to the difficulty of winning release. Nor is resolution helped by publicity or a fellow basketball player’s heartfelt but naïve plea on national television for “our U.S. government to do everything and anything” to help a “hero.” Publicity can have the adverse effect of making a hostage more valuable. The U.S. doesn’t have a lot of concessions to offer Russia right now.
While favorable outcomes are difficult to identify, the U.S. will eventually have to pay a price for Griner’s freedom, if a price can be identified.
Let’s hope the unfavorable outcomes are avoided: prolonged, unjustified detention of Griner or release of the Merchant of Death to pursue his depravity.