Dozens of organizations representing blacks, women and LGBTQ voters called on President Biden on Wednesday to reach an agreement on the release of Britney Greener, the WNBA star who has been detained in Russia since February.
In a letter to Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the groups said Ms. Greener “continues to suffer inhuman treatment without contact with her family.”
The letter said the United States “recognized that Britney was essentially a political pawn in classifying her as illegally detained.” And while the signatories quoted him as “deeply grateful” for the administration’s efforts to release Ms. Greener, “we now urge you to make a deal to bring Britney back home to America immediately and safely.”
The Phoenix Mercury basketball player was detained in Russia on February 17 on charges of having hashish oil in her luggage. Initially, Ms. Griner’s camp worried that publicity could worsen the situation because of tensions between Russia and the United States, including the war in Ukraine.
But the group’s approach changed after the State Department said on May 3 that it had found Ms. Griner “illegally detained.” This meant that the United States could do more to bring her home, despite the lawsuit against her in Russia.
In recent weeks, WNBA players working with Ms. Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and others, have tried to draw attention to her case.
The latest effort, a letter from groups including the National Women’s Organization, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Urban League and the National Action Network, was coordinated by Ms. Greener’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Kolas, working with Democrat strategist Karen Feeney and others. The constituency coalition groups that helped elect Mr Biden spoke amid growing frustration with the pace of efforts to bring Ms Greener home.
“As far as I understand, they have not started negotiations for her release, so this letter is very strong, because we need a lot of support to emphasize the fact that we are at a stage where you guys have to make a deal,” Cherel said. Griner.
“I wish I could say that I have a clear understanding of this,” she said of the White House strategy. “They talk a lot in code with me.”
The administration, she said, was “arguing over whether negotiations should begin” when it has already been established that her wife has been wrongfully detained. Instead, they discuss and waste time in my wife’s life.
White House officials declined to comment.
Administration officials said Mr. Biden’s team was in regular contact with Griner’s family and that Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken spoke with Cheryl Griner in May. The Special Envoy for Hostages is also in touch with Mrs Griner’s team.
Bill Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico and a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is also working to try to free Ms. Griner and another American in Russia, former Marine Paul Whelan, who has been detained since 2018.
However, Cheryl Greener said she was not sure how much the White House gave priority to the case. She told the Associated Press that she had to talk to her wife on the phone for the first time in about four months over the weekend, but a logistical problem at the US embassy in Moscow overturned plans.
According to the AP, the embassy should have facilitated the conversation between the two women. But when Britney Greener called the embassy to contact her wife in the United States, there was no answer. Britney Greener’s lawyers said she tried to call the line 11 times while her wife waited in vain for the call, AP reported.
“I was upset. I was hurt. “I’m done, I’m tired,” Cherry Green said to the AP
Add Comment