Brittney Griner Speaks to Reporters for First Time Since Release From Russia

PHOENIX – Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who was at the center of a geopolitical dispute between the United States and Russia last year, is expected to speak to reporters on Thursday for the first time since being released in December in a prisoner exchange.

Mrs. Griner, 32, plans to speak to reporters as his team, the Phoenix Mercury, prepares for the start of the season on May 19, and as the United States and Russia clash over the detention of another American, a Wall Street Journal reporter said. Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage.

Mercury officials said Ms. Griner would not discuss his time in Russia at the press conference. He called for the release of Mr. Gershkovich and others classified as wrongful detainees by the US government.

He was detained after customs officials at an airport near Moscow found a small concentration of marijuana in a vape cartridge in his luggage in February 2022. In May, the US State Department said he was wrongfully detained. He and Mr. Gershkovich have become the latest in a line of Americans detained by Moscow under what US officials described as implausible allegations.

A Russian court convicted him of drug smuggling, and in August, Ms. Griner was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony. He was released as part of a prisoner exchange in December; Viktor Bout, an arms dealer nicknamed the Merchant of Death, was sent back to Russia. He was convicted in 2011 on charges that included conspiracy to kill an American citizen. Ms. Griner and Mr. Bout crossed paths on the tarmac in the United Arab Emirates, the site of the exchange.

Mr. Gershkovich, 31, was detained by Russian security services in late March and charged with espionage in mid-April, a charge that his employers and US officials strongly deny. While Mr. Gershkovich was able to meet with Russian lawyers, the State Department has repeatedly asked Russian authorities to grant him consular access.

He is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo Prison, a facility where inmates are held in solitary confinement with infrequent visits from lawyers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov suggested this week that there was a possibility of a prisoner exchange involving Mr. Gershkovich, similar to the trade of Ms. Griner for Mr. Bout.

At a press conference at the United Nations, Mr. Lavrov said that Mr. Gershkovich and another American prisoner held in Russia, Paul Whelan, had been caught “in the act of committing a crime, receiving material” containing state secrets.

Mrs. Griner said this month he plans to write a memoir about his detention in Russia that he hopes will raise awareness about those who have been wrongly detained. The book, which is scheduled to be released next year, will depict “horrific aspects of daily life in a women’s penal colony,” according to a statement from Alfred A. Knopf, the publisher.

She quickly signaled after her return to the United States that she plans to return to the WNBA, and she signed a one-year contract with the Mercury to return to the court. She last played in the league in 2021 and has produced one of the best campaigns of her career, averaging 20.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game and reaching the WNBA finals, where the team lost to the Chicago Sky.

Chris Rhim reported from Phoenix and Alan Yuhas reported from New York.