While former NBA star Dennis Rodman ambitiously claimed he would be flying to Russia in a bid to help free Brittney Griner, it looks as if his plans have been derailed by the U.S. government. The 61-year-old told NBC News on Saturday that he had gotten “permission to help that girl,” and that he was looking to make the trip as early as this week.
However, Ned Price, who is a spokesperson for the State Department, released a statement to ABC News on Monday, letting it be known that if Rodman was to go ahead and fly out to Russia, he “would not be traveling on behalf of the U.S. government.” Furthermore, Price asserted that Rodman trying to negotiate with officials in Russia would only complicate things amid ongoing talks to bring Griner back to the U.S. as quickly as possible.
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“We believe that anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to complicate and hinder those release efforts,” he added. This led Rodman to backtrack from his comments over the weekend, telling ABC News in a statement of his own he will no longer be flying out to Russia after all.
Griner has been detained in Russia since February when she traveled to Moscow with vape cartridges containing hashish oil inside her luggage, which is deemed illegal in the country. She has since been found guilty and was sentenced to a whopping nine years in prison, with reports claiming the U.S. government is having ongoing talks with Russia to trade notorious arms dealer for the release of Griner and US Marine Paul Whelan.
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Since the verdict of her nine-year prison sentence, Griner’s legal team has already filed an appeal, with her attorney Maria Blagovolina calling the ruling “excessive,” and that those who have been in similar cases in the past were given much lighter punishments than the one handed to her client.
Earlier this month, Russia did confirm that they were actively having discussions for a prisoner exchange with the U.S., though an agreement had yet to be reached. “The discussion of the quite sensitive topic of prisoner exchange of Russian and American citizens has been ongoing along the channels set out by the two presidents,” Alexander Darchiev, who is the director of the North American department at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, shared.