NBC News reported Sunday that former NBA star Dennis Rodman plans to visit Russia to secure the release of NBA player Britney Grainer.
The network quoted Rodman as saying he hopes to travel to Russia this week to try to help Greiner, who was convicted in a Moscow court of drug possession and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Dennis Rodman heads to Russia to try to persuade Putin to release Britney Griner from prison. pic.twitter.com/KHbErz8sPM
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“I got permission to go to Russia to help this girl,” Rodman told CNN. “I’ll try to go this week.”
Rodman, who attended the sportswear conference, offered no further details, according to NBC News.
A senior official in the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said: “It is known that the administration has made an important offer to the Russians (about the exchange of prisoners), and anything else, except for continuing negotiations through the existing channel, is likely to complicate and hinder the release efforts.”
Britney Greiner, a player on the Phoenix Mercury women’s basketball team, was detained at Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow last February on charges of trying to smuggle drugs into Russia.
E-cigarettes and cannabis oil were found in Grenier’s bags, according to Russian customs.
Rodman, 61, a five-time NBA champion (in 1989 and 1990 with the Detroit Pistons and in 1996, 1997 and 1998 with the Chicago Bulls and legend Michael Jordan), has a track record of unconventional intrusions into politics.
Over the past decade, he has developed ties with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and has visited the isolated country several times, and in 2018 he traveled to Singapore when former US President Donald Trump met with Kim there.
Source: AFP