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      In the Deal to Free Griner, Putin Used a Familiar Lever: Pain

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      President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia wants to prosecute his war in Ukraine in the same way he secured the freedom on Thursday of a major Russian arms dealer: inflict so much pain on Western governments that, eventually, they make a deal.The Kremlin pushed for more than a decade to get Viktor Bout, convicted in 2011 of conspiring to kill Americans, released from prison in the United States. But it was only this year, with the arrest at a Moscow airport of the American basketball star Brittney Griner, that Mr. Putin found the leverage to get his way.On Thursday, pro-Kremlin voices celebrated Mr. Bout’s release, in a prisoner exchange for Ms. Griner, as a victory, a sign that no matter the desire to punish Russia over the war in Ukraine, the United States will still come to the table when key American interests are at play. Russia negotiated from “a position of strength, comrades,” Maria Butina — a pro-Putin member of Parliament who herself served time in an American prison — posted on the Telegram messaging app.Mr. Putin’s emerging strategy in Ukraine, in the wake of his military’s repeated failures, now increasingly echoes the strategy that finally brought Mr. Bout back to Moscow. He is bombarding Ukrainian energy infrastructure, effectively taking its people hostage as he seeks to break the country’s spirit. The tactic is threatening the European Union with a new wave of refugees just as Mr. Putin uses a familiar economic lever: choking off gas exports. And Mr. Putin is betting that the West, even after showing far more unity in support of Ukraine than Mr. Putin appears to have expected, will eventually tire of the fight and its economic ill effects.The American basketball star Brittney Griner, who was arrested in March, was released from a penal colony on Thursday. Here, she is being escorted to a Moscow courtroom last August.Pool photo by Kirill KudryavtsevThere’s no guarantee that strategy will work. Though President Biden yielded on Mr. Bout, he has shown no inclination to relent on United States support for Ukraine. America’s European allies, while facing some domestic political and economic pressure to press for a compromise with Russia, have remained on board.In the face of this Western solidarity, Mr. Putin repeatedly signaled this week that he is willing to keep fighting, despite embarrassing territorial retreats, Russian casualties that the United States puts at more than 100,000 and the West’s ever-expanding sanctions. On Wednesday, he warned that the war “might be a long process.” And at a Kremlin medal ceremony for soldiers on Thursday, Mr. Putin insisted — falsely — that it was Ukraine’s government that was carrying out “genocide,” suggesting that Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure would continue.“If we make the smallest move to respond, there’s noise, din and clamor across the whole universe,” he said, champagne flute in hand, in remarks broadcast on state television. “This will not prevent us from fulfilling our combat missions.”Mr. Putin did not comment on the prisoner exchange himself on Thursday. But in the context of the Ukraine war, there was a clear undertone to the crowing in Moscow: To supporters, Mr. Putin remains a deal maker, and he stands ready to negotiate over Ukraine as long as the West does not block his goal of pulling the country into his orbit and seizing some of its territory.“He’s signaling that he’s ready to bargain,” Tatiana Stanovaya, a political analyst who studies Mr. Putin, said. “But he’s letting the West know that ‘Ukraine is ours.’”Heavily damaged buildings in Bakhmut, Ukraine, last week.Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesAsked when the war could end, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, hinted on Thursday that Russia is still waiting for President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to accept some kind of deal: “Zelensky knows when this could all end. It could end tomorrow, if there’s a will.”But when one of Mr. Putin’s top spies, Sergei Naryshkin, met with the head of the C.I.A., William Burns, in Turkey last month, Mr. Burns did not discuss a settlement to the Ukraine war, American officials said. Instead, Mr. Burns warned of dire consequences for Moscow were it to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and discussed the fate of Americans imprisoned in Russia, including Ms. Griner.“The Russian negotiating style is, they punch you in the face and then they ask if you want to negotiate,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official who now works as research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. “The Americans respond to that by saying, ‘You know, you just punched us in the face, you clearly don’t want to negotiate.’”Nevertheless, negotiations on some issues have continued even as Russia’s onslaught of missile attacks has escalated, talks blessed by Mr. Putin despite occasional criticism from the most hawkish supporters of his war.Russia’s pro-war bloggers fumed in September when Mr. Putin agreed to an earlier high-profile exchange: commanders of the Azov Battalion, a nationalist fighting force within the Ukrainian military that gained celebrity status for its defense of a besieged steel plant, for a friend of Mr. Putin, the Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. Some critics have slammed Mr. Putin’s agreement to allow Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea as representing an undue concession.President Vladimir V. Putin, third from left, inspecting the Kerch Strait Bridge this week. The bridge, which connects the Russian mainland and the Crimean Peninsula, was badly damaged in a Ukrainian attack in October.Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik, via ReutersAnd then there were the talks surrounding Mr. Bout and Ms. Griner. On the surface, the exchange appeared to be a mismatch, given the wide disparity in the severity of their offenses: one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers and an American basketball star detained for traveling with vape cartridges containing hashish oil.But Mr. Biden showed he was prepared to invest significant political capital in securing Ms. Griner’s freedom, while the Kremlin has long sought Mr. Bout’s release.“We know that attempts to help Bout have been made for many years,” said Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a research organization close to the Russian government. “He has also become a symbolic figure” for the Kremlin, he added.Mr. Bout became notorious among American intelligence officials, earning the nickname “Merchant of Death” as he evaded capture for years. He was finally arrested in an undercover operation in Bangkok in 2008, with American prosecutors saying he had agreed to sell antiaircraft weapons to informants posing as arms buyers for the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC.Some analysts believe that Mr. Bout has connections to Russia’s intelligence services. Such links have not been publicly confirmed, but they could explain why Mr. Putin — a former K.G.B. officer — has put such stock in working for Mr. Bout’s release.“If he were just some arms dealer and cargo magnate, then it is hard to see why it would have been quite such a priority for the Russian state,” Mark Galeotti, a lecturer on Russia and transnational crime at University College London, said last summer.President Biden at a news conference on Thursday with Brittney Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, left, Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in Washington.Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThat means that the U.S. decision to free Mr. Bout — likely the most prominent Russian in American custody — represented a significant compromise. It was magnified by the fact that the United States accepted the exchange even though Russia declined to also release Paul Whelan, a former Marine the Biden administration also considers a political hostage.Some analysts believe that the decision to free Mr. Bout carries risks because it could encourage Mr. Putin to take new hostages — and shows that his strategy of causing pain, and then winning concessions, is continuing to bear fruit.Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist who specializes in the security services, said that he was worried about the precedent set by Washington’s agreeing to trade an arms dealer for a basketball player who committed a minor offense.“Back in the days of the Cold War, it was always about professionals against professionals, one spy against another,” he said. While the United States must contend with public demand at home to return a hostage, the Russians can “ignore it completely,” he said.Now, Moscow “can just grab someone with a high public profile in the U.S. — an athlete, a sportsman,” he said. Public outcry in the U.S. “would make that position much more advantageous in terms of these kind of talks.” More

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      Daria Kasatkina’s Tumultuous and Triumphant Season

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      The tennis star has spoken out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and come out as gay with her partner, the figure skater and fellow Russian Natalia Zabiiako. And she’s winning.FORT WORTH — As Daria Kasatkina’s match with the American teenager Coco Gauff took many a twist and turn on Thursday night, Kasatkina’s thoughts were hard to read: Her neutral, deeply focused expression gave little hint of the score until she had closed out her round-robin victory, 7-6 (6), 6-3, at the WTA Finals with a roar and a clenched fist.Kasatkina, a 25-year-old Russian who will face Caroline Garcia on Saturday for a place in the semifinals, is in the moment and back in the groove in her first appearance in this elite year-end event, reserved for the top eight women’s singles players and top eight doubles teams.But it has been a tumultuous, ultimately triumphant season for Kasatkina. In July, in an interview with the Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko, she came out as gay, making her relationship public with the former Olympic pairs figure skater Natalia Zabiiako. In that same interview, Kasatkina also became the first Russian tennis star to speak out in depth against the war with Ukraine.Both are risky moves in Russia, where the government led by President Vladimir V. Putin has enacted laws restricting dissent against the war and banned the portrayal of gay relationships in books, films and the media.Kasatkina, who called the war a “full-blown nightmare” and expressed empathy for Ukrainian players, has long trained in Spain with her coach, Carlos Martinez, and is now based in Dubai. She has not returned to Russia, where she still has family, since a visit to St. Petersburg in February, shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Has this been her year of being brave?“Maybe yes,” she said in an interview in Fort Worth. “I was saying those things not to look brave but to give to the people my point of view and my feelings. So, if they see that this was brave, good, but it was not to look brave, completely not.”Some Ukrainian players, including Ukraine’s former Billie Jean King Cup captain Olga Savchuk, thanked Kasatkina personally.“At least she tried and did something and can live with a clean soul,” Savchuk said in a text message on Friday. “I can easily look in her face now when I meet her, because I know what she thinks.”Asked what the feedback had been like in Russia, Kasatkina demurred. “Let’s not talk about it,” she said.But she said that she had been touched by the level of support internationally for her decision to come out about her sexuality and to live openly with Zabiiako, a 2018 Olympian for Russia, who is with her and Martinez in Fort Worth.More on Women and Girls in SportsHawaii Sex Discrimination: A lawsuit alleging Title IX violations at a Hawaii high school could be a landmark stress test for the law.Abuse in Women’s Soccer: The publication of the Yates Report, detailing “systemic abuse” throughout the sport, is only the beginning.Pretty in Any Color: Women’s basketball players are styling themselves how they want, because they can. Their choices also can be lucrative.Title IX’s Racial Gaps: Because race has never been part of the law, Title IX has heavily benefited white women over women of color.“I didn’t know what to expect, and everything went perfectly, I think,” Kasatkina said. “And I’m just really thankful to everyone who messaged me, who supported me. Of course, there was also some negative parts, but I just didn’t feel it at all. Just the people on the internet, so it wasn’t important to me at all.”Kasatkina said her life day-to-day had not changed nearly as much as her mood.“I just started to feel much better,” Kasatkina said. “Just being myself and feeling more free to do the things I want to do, the things I feel I need to do. It’s amazing. To live with the feeling of freedom, it’s a great feeling.”Kasatkina, left, came out as gay earlier this year, making public her relationship with the Russian figure skater Natalia Zabiiako.John G Mabanglo/EPA, via ShutterstockShe has climbed back into the top 10 in 2022, snagging the eighth and last singles qualifying spot for the WTA Finals after serving as an alternate in 2018 in Singapore without getting to play a match.“I guess we could say I caught the last train to be here,” Kasatkina said. “I was pretty stressed in the race, because it was pretty tight. But being here feels great.”Banned from Wimbledon along with all players from Russia and its ally Belarus, Kasatkina might not have qualified for Fort Worth if the tours had not stripped Wimbledon of ranking points in retaliation for the Russian ban.Elena Rybakina, a Russian-born player who now represents Kazakhstan, won the Wimbledon women’s singles title, but, without the 2,000 points that normally go with a Grand Slam title, did not qualify for the WTA Finals.Kasatkina and the Belarusian star Aryna Sabalenka both finished in the top eight and have been able to play a nearly full season because of the tours’ decision to allow individuals from Russia and Belarus to compete, albeit without flags or national identification.“Of course, we appreciate that we can keep our jobs and play,” Kasatkina said. “We are lucky, and we are super thankful for this.”Her resurgent season has been a long time coming. Though Kasatkina can summon baseline power, her game is, above all, based on craft and spin, on rhythm and tactical shifts.Her former coach Philippe Dehaes called her “a tennis genius,” and with his help she rose to No. 10 in 2018, reaching the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., before losing to Naomi Osaka in what was a breakthrough tournament for both young talents.But Kasatkina was unable to sustain that momentum, splitting with Dehaes in 2019 and spiraling, by her own account, into depression and a crisis of confidence that had her seriously contemplating quitting the sport.Carlos Martinez began coaching Kasatkina in June 2019.Carmen Mandato/Getty ImagesBut she worked through it with help from a psychologist, as well as her brother Alexandr and Martinez, a former Spanish satellite-level player who long coached Kasatkina’s Russian compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.“Carlos took me from the bottom when I was completely broken, let’s say,” Kasatkina said. “We did a very good job together coming back to the top 10. I’m glad and grateful that he had this patience.”Martinez, who began coaching her in June 2019, believed in Kasatkina’s talent but needed to help her recover confidence.“She came from tough moments when the expectation around her was very high, finishing top 10 in 2018,” Martinez said Thursday. “In the beginning, it was just about building a base, building a player who could play on every surface and can adapt to different games.”Although she can summon baseline power, Kasatkina’s game is based on craft and spin.Martin Divisek/EPA, via ShutterstockThe pandemic gave them additional time to work at Martinez’s club, and they focused more on improving tactics and attitude than on technical adjustments“Two or three years ago, this match with Coco, she would have lost, 6-2, 6-2,” Martinez said. “No chance. You would have seen frustration, but now, no. She knows she can change the course of the match every single point.”Consistency remains an issue. Kasatkina has lost in one of her first two rounds in 11 events this year, but she also reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open and won two singles titles, compiling a 40-20 record through all the travels and the tumult.Against Garcia on Saturday, she can extend her finest season for at least one more match and then head to the Maldives with Zabiiako for sun, calm and vacation.Returning to Russia will have to wait.“Maybe when the war will be finished,” she said. More

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      Brittney Griner’s Prison Term Is Upheld by Russian Court

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      The W.N.B.A. athlete is facing nine years in a Russian prison on a drug charge. A prisoner swap may be her only path home.A Russian appeals court on Tuesday upheld a nine-year prison sentence imposed on Brittney Griner, the American basketball star arrested after she arrived in the country carrying a small amount of hash oil.Ms. Griner has been jailed since her detention in February, and the new ruling may now pave the way for her transfer to a prison colony, although it was not clear when that might happen. Her lawyers said they might ask a higher court to intervene.“We need to discuss this with our client,” they said in a statement on Tuesday. “We generally think that we must use all the available legal tools, especially given the harsh and unprecedented nature of her sentence.”But higher courts in Russia are loath to overturn verdicts, especially if a case involves foreign policy and the interests of the Kremlin, experts say, and the athlete’s fate may now be in the hands of Russian and American officials feeling each other out about a possible prisoner exchange.President Biden, asked what the United States would do now in the wake of the court ruling, said: “We are in constant contact with the Russian authorities to get Brittney and others out, and so far we have not been meeting with much positive response. But we’re not stopping.”The negotiation comes at a time of extraordinary tensions between the two countries over the war in Ukraine, and the ruling by the three-judge appeals panel Tuesday did nothing to change that.“We are aware of the news out of Russia that Brittney Griner will continue to be wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances after having to undergo another sham judicial proceeding today,” Jake Sullivan, the American national security adviser, said in a statement.The State of the WarFears of Escalation: Western officials said Moscow was seeking to create a pretext for escalating the war by making false claims that Kyiv was preparing to detonate a dirty bomb on its own territory.Anti-Drone Warfare: Since Russia began terrorizing Ukrainian cities in recent weeks with Iranian-made drones, Ukraine has turned its focus to an intense counter-drone strategy. The hastily assembled effort has been surprisingly successful.A Devastated Land: Ukrainians who are returning to liberated towns are encountering destruction on a staggering scale, vital services cut and the prospect of a lethal winter ahead.A New Front?: Russia is massing thousands of troops in its western neighbor Belarus, raising fears that Moscow might plan to open another front in the war. But officials in Kyiv and Washington are casting doubt on whether the buildup represents a serious threat.Russian officials have said that prisoner exchanges cannot be considered until the legal process has concluded.From the very start, Ms. Griner’s case has become entangled with global tensions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.On Tuesday, as Ms. Griner appeared remotely in a Moscow courtroom, Russian and Ukrainian forces were battling over territory and concerns were rising that Moscow might be considering detonating explosives laced with radioactive material and blaming Ukraine.Days before Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Ms. Griner, an All-Star center with the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained at an airport near Moscow after customs officials found two vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. She had been en route to Yekaterinburg, a city near the Ural Mountains, where she played for a women’s basketball team.Ms. Griner, who recently turned 32 in Russian custody, pleaded guilty to drug-smuggling charges and apologized for what she called an inadvertent offense. She apologized again on Tuesday before the appeals court ruled.From the very start, Ms. Griner’s case has become entangled with global tensions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated Press“I did not intend to do this,” she said via a video link from a detention cell, “but I understand the charges against me, and I just hope that that is also taken into account.”Addressing the court, she protested her unusually long sentence.“I’ve been here almost eight months,” she said, “and people with more severe crimes have gotten less than what I was given.”Since Ms. Griner was sentenced in August, her lawyers have argued that the nine-year prison term — near the 10-year maximum for such a conviction — is too harsh for a first-time offense and was politically motivated.“We are very disappointed,” her lawyers said in their statement Tuesday. “The verdict contains numerous defects, and we hoped that the court of appeal would take them into consideration. We still think the punishment is excessive.”Before the court ruled, the lawyers had appeared to be lowering expectations.“Brittney does not expect any miracles to happen,” they said, “but hopes that the appeal court will hear the arguments of the defense and reduce the number of years.”American officials contend that Russia, struggling under the weight of international sanctions imposed over the war, is hoping to use the athlete and another imprisoned American, Paul Whelan, a former Marine held since December 2018, as bargaining chips.Mr. Sullivan said on Tuesday that American officials had “continued to engage with Russia through every available channel” to secure the freedom of Ms. Griner and other Americans wrongfully detained in Russia.“The president has demonstrated that he is willing to go to extraordinary lengths and make tough decisions to bring Americans home,” Mr. Sullivan said.On the day a Russian appeals court upheld Brittney Griner’s sentence on drug smuggling charges, President Biden said that his administration would not stop trying to secure the basketball star’s release.Network PoolOne person briefed on the talks between Moscow and Washington this summer said that the United States had proposed exchanging Ms. Griner and Mr. Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for charges including conspiring to kill Americans.Mr. Biden and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia are expected to attend a summit of Group of 20 leaders next month in Indonesia, but Mr. Biden has said he would speak with the Russian leader there only if it were to discuss Ms. Griner’s case.For American basketball players, playing in Russia during the off-season can be lucrative, but since Ms. Griner’s arrest, most W.N.B.A. players have shunned the country, and on Tuesday, the organization denounced the court decision.“This appeal is further verification that B.G. is not just wrongfully detained — she is very clearly a hostage,” it said.Ivan Nechepurenko More

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      War and Griner’s Arrest Don’t Deter U.S. Men From Russian Basketball

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      While American female basketball players have largely stayed away from Russia, dozens of American men have sought pay and career development in the country.The war in Ukraine and the imprisonment of the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner in Russia have roiled geopolitics and all but shut down the pipeline of American female professionals playing in Russian leagues to earn far more than they can make in the United States.But Russians can still see Americans on their courts: Dozens of male players, including some with N.B.A. experience, are looking past the international conflicts and signing deals there, saying their careers and potential earnings are separate from politics. At least one American woman is also playing in Russia this season, for the same club that Griner played with in the country.“Russia wasn’t my first choice to come to,” said Joe Thomasson, 29, one of the American men playing in Russia. “It wouldn’t have been anybody’s first choice to come to if you were American, just dealing with the situation of Brittney Griner.”Although several agents did not respond to requests to be interviewed about their players in Russia, those who did identified roughly 30 American men’s basketball players who were competing or planning to soon compete in the country, about twice as many as usual. They can earn more than $1 million and often receive free housing and cars.“Everybody’s going to say, ‘Why would you go there?’” said K.C. Rivers, 35, who is in his first season with BC Samara and has played on other Russian teams. “But at the end of the day, you still have mouths to feed. You still have family to provide for. And sometimes it is not always the easiest decision, but you have to do what’s best for you. You can’t make decisions based off of what the general society says.”At least four of Rivers’s teammates are American.Many women’s basketball players who normally could have supplemented their modest W.N.B.A. salaries by playing in Russia during the off-season are avoiding the country — often in solidarity with Griner, who had played for UMMC Yekaterinburg — and signing contracts with teams in Turkey, Greece, Spain and other countries. The W.N.B.A. said it did not know of any of its players going to Russia. Alex Bentley, who last played in the W.N.B.A. in 2019, will play for UMMC Yekaterinburg for the second straight season.Griner has been at the center of a monthslong dispute with Russia. The U.S. government has said she was wrongfully detained at an airport near Moscow seven months ago when she was accused of bringing illegal narcotics — cannabis-infused vape cartridges — into the country as she traveled to play for her Russian team. She pleaded guilty in July and was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony in August but has appealed her conviction. U.S. and Russian officials have been discussing a prisoner swap that would free her.W.N.B.A. fans have pushed for Brittney Griner’s return from Russian imprisonment. Lindsey Wasson/Associated PressGriner earned about $230,000 as one of the best players in the W.N.B.A., but UMMC Yekaterinburg was reportedly paying her more than $1 million.“She was there for a reason,” said the agent Daryl Graham, whose client Bryon Allen is playing for Parma-Pari. “She made a lot of money there.”More on the W.N.B.A.Swan Song: Sue Bird, who had said she would retire after this season, shepherded the Seattle Storm to the playoffs. The team’s loss on Sept. 7 marked the end of her incredible career.Greatness Overshadowed: Sylvia Fowles, who has also announced her retirement from basketball, is one of the most successful American athletes ever. Why isn’t she better known?A Critical Eye: As enthusiasm for women’s basketball and the W.N.B.A grows, fans are becoming more demanding of the league and more vocal about their wishes.Making the Style Rules: Players in women’s basketball are styling themselves before the games. Their choices are an expression of their freedom, and can be lucrative too.He added: “It’s actually better for the players, because the teams are paying a premium now. They’re giving more money out to get the guys to come, because of the perception of what’s going on there.”One agent estimated that Russian teams have offered as much as 50 percent more than in previous years — and sometimes triple what teams in other countries pay — in order to persuade players to come.Bentley’s agent, Boris Lelchitski, said in an email that Bentley signed a one-year contract extension with UMMC Yekaterinburg in December and “had to make a difficult decision” to play in Russia. He said she did not have any offers from W.N.B.A. teams the past two seasons.“This is her opportunity to build her financial security,” he said.In a phone interview, Lelchitski said Bentley was “really good friends” with Griner and hoped that she would be freed from prison soon. He said Bentley felt comfortable returning to Russia because she has dual citizenship and plays as a European, and because there are many American men in Russia playing basketball.The State Department has advised Americans not to travel to Russia because of the war and the potential for harassment by Russian government officials. When contacted about the players in Russia, a spokesperson said that Americans “should depart Russia immediately” and that the embassy would have a “limited ability” to help them there.A spokesperson would not say how many U.S. citizens are thought to be in Russia but added that for emergency planning, embassies have constantly changing estimates of how many Americans are abroad.David Carro, who has been an agent for nearly two decades, represents Thomasson, Rivers and a handful of other players in Russia. He said players enjoyed going there because they can expect to be paid on time, the play is competitive, and they don’t have to pay for apartments and cars. He said Russia was not as dangerous as people might think because “there is a war in Ukraine. But in Russia, there is no war.”Rivers said of Samara, one of Russia’s largest industrial cities: “It’s normal here. Honestly, since I’ve been here, I haven’t heard anything about the war.”Nearly seven months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, there is no end in sight for the conflict. All of the land warfare is happening in Ukraine, and the Kremlin has worked hard to minimize the effect on average Russians of the invasion — and the resulting sanctions imposed by Western nations. Although Ukraine recently recaptured large swaths of occupied territory in the northeast, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has shown no sign of backing down and has warned that he could further escalate his onslaught. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians are believed to have been killed.Thomasson, one of the American players, arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia, in late August with his fiancée, LaDresha Player Spear, and their three young children. Jet lagged and hungry after the long journey from Ohio, they headed to the grocery store.K.C. Rivers said he understood people may question his decision to play in Russia, but he wanted to make a living. Panagiotis Moschandreou/Euroleague Basketball via Getty ImagesThomasson wanted nothing more than to leave quickly after buying a few items. But when he offered a debit card and a credit card to the cashier, neither worked. Player Spear’s cards also were declined. They did not know that Mastercard and Visa had suspended operations in Russia because of the war. A woman in line overheard the frustrated couple and, realizing they were Americans, offered to pay for their groceries.Months ago, as Thomasson finished his season with a team in Manresa, Spain, he and Carro debated where he should play next. Thomasson, who has also played in Israel and Poland, has always regarded himself as an underdog and wanted to test himself in the Euroleague, Europe’s primary professional club competition. (Russia has since been suspended from the league because of the war, but its clubs still play within the country.)Zenit Saint Petersburg, a top Russian team, offered him a contract. Thomasson mulled the offer and talked to the coaching staff and Americans who had played there. He reassured concerned family members. But he deleted his Twitter account after other users criticized him for making the deal.Carro had advised Thomasson not to worry about politics.“The common people are not very well-informed about the situation, and they want to make sports and sportsmen suffer for a political and geopolitical problem,” Carro said. “Of course, it is a very big problem and of course it should be worrying for all of us. But I don’t think the front where we should be fighting is the sports front, because those people in the clubs, they are not guilty of what’s going on.”He rebuffed those who tried to talk him out of sending players to Russia, pointing to the dangers in the United States in places like Texas “where everybody carries a gun, where there has been shootings in the schools or in a supermarket.”He added, “It all depends on how you see things.”The Russian basketball clubs will play fewer games this season because of their suspension from Euroleague competition. CSKA Moscow, UNICS Kazan and Zenit Saint Petersburg participated in the Euroleague last season, but had their results expunged.“Just because I’m not competing in the Euroleague doesn’t make me not a Euroleague player,’’ Thomasson said. “It just means more money for less work. That’s the approach that I took.”Zenit Saint Petersburg and Anadolu Efes Istanbul in the Euroleague last season.Sergey Grachev/Euroleague Basketball via Getty ImagesJermaine Love, a 33-year-old guard from outside of Chicago, is living in Russia for the first time after signing with BC Nizhny Novgorod. He has played for teams in Poland, Greece, Italy and Israel but said “everyone” told him he was crazy for joining a Russian team. He felt reassured after talking to a friend from Chicago who briefly played for the team last season.Love has been in Nizhny Novgorod, a large city in the western part of Russia, for a few weeks and expects to remain in the country through the end of the season in May. His wife, Thalia Love, and their two young children plan to join him in December.“I want to be able to take care of my family,” Love said. “That’s my No. 1 job.”There are some minor inconveniences. He has spotty phone and internet service, so he often relies on sending voice notes to stay in touch with friends and family back home. Love said he was also relying on his faith.“I’m covered by the blood of God,” he said. “I know that things wouldn’t come to me if He wasn’t ready for me to pursue them. I wanted to come into this situation with an open mind, and that’s what I did. Everything is great so far.”In July, a client of the longtime N.B.A. agent Bill Neff asked him to gauge interest from Russian teams. Neff said a conversation with a Russian agent he had worked with before quickly steered into the other agent’s belief that the United States was at fault for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“I had a moral dilemma as to what to do,” Neff said. “I thought to myself, ‘I’m sending guys to a situation like that?’ So, I decided only if they re-ask me, I would do it, but other than that, I really struggled with it, where other agents have not, and it’s interesting.”He added: “When you see what’s happening to Brittney Griner, there’s a side of me that said: ‘How can I, in good conscience, send a player there? And if something goes wrong, what happens?’”The client asked again, so Neff tried to find him a deal, but no Russian team offered a contract, he said. Neff is now hoping for a resolution that allows him to feel safe sending clients into the country again.“Believe me,” he said, “if the war stops and things get back to normal, I’ll be the first one in line.”Scott Cacciola More

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      WNBA Stars to Head Overseas Despite Brittney Griner’s Arrest in Russia

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      Playing for international teams can earn top players more than $1 million. But Brittney Griner’s detention in Russia has complicated the choice to go abroad.As the W.N.B.A. star Jonquel Jones looked ahead to the off-season this year, she couldn’t help but think about her friend Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February after customs officials arrested her at an airport near Moscow.“Her not being with us, her not being with her team and the W.N.B.A., her family not being able to see her,” Jones said. “Just her being over there and understanding that it could have easily been somebody else on our team and just kind of feeling the weight of that.“When you’re so close to that person it’s a little bit different.”Griner, like Jones, had been in Russia during the W.N.B.A. off-season to supplement her relatively modest salary by playing for some of the highest-paying women’s basketball teams in the world. But for the upcoming off-season, Jones, 28, signed with a Turkish team instead.“What would make me feel comfortable about going back to Russia?” Jones said. “B.G. being home, first and foremost. U.S.A. and Russia relations being better. The war in Ukraine being over with.”Griner, left, during the 2021 EuroLeague semifinal. Her detention has essentially removed Russia as a country W.N.B.A. players are considering for their off-season teams. Erdem Sahin/EPA, via ShutterstockPlaying overseas remains extremely popular for W.N.B.A. players seeking to earn more money or gain more pro experience, but several agents and players told The New York Times that, because of Griner’s ordeal and the war, they did not know of anyone who would be playing in Russia this off-season. The W.N.B.A. said it did not have a complete list of players going abroad because its playoffs are underway.The coronavirus pandemic had already winnowed overseas opportunities for W.N.B.A. players in virus-conscious countries like China and South Korea before the war in Ukraine and Griner’s detention made Russia essentially off limits, too. Players are still opting to go places like Turkey, Israel, Spain, Italy and France.“There’s always going to be some risk involved with being in a foreign country, but there’s risks in your own country as well,” said Jones, who has Bahamian and Bosnian citizenship. “We have a very short or small window to make the type of money that we’re making overseas, so we have to make sure we capitalize on that.”This year’s decision about playing overseas is more fraught because of Griner’s detention, but the personal and financial pressures that have pushed players abroad for years persist. There are political and safety concerns in some parts of the world, but some players need the money, and others would find it hard to pass up a payday that can significantly increase their yearly earnings. For others, going overseas provides extra time to hone one’s craft, and playing time that isn’t available in the W.N.B.A., which has just 144 roster slots across 12 teams and a season that lasts only a few months. Some players simply enjoy being able to work abroad.Griner’s situation has changed the stakes of making that choice.One of the W.N.B.A.’s best-known stars, Griner, 31, was recently convicted of drug possession and smuggling in a Russian court and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony after customs officials said they found hashish oil in her luggage. She is appealing her conviction, and U.S. State Department officials maintain that she was wrongfully detained. American and Russian officials have discussed a prisoner swap to bring Griner home, possibly with other detained Americans.“What would make me feel comfortable about going back to Russia?” Jones said. “B.G. being home, first and foremost.”Zsolt Szigetvary/EPA, via ShutterstockWhen she was arrested, Griner was returning to Russia to join Jones on their team, UMMC Yekaterinburg, for the playoffs. Griner has starred for the W.N.B.A.’s Phoenix Mercury since 2013 and soon after also joined Yekaterinburg, among a handful of clubs owned by oligarchs who pay top salaries for pride and political reasons. Those clubs are not seen as an option right now because of Griner’s detention and the war in Ukraine.“It’s taken some money off the table for some people,” said Mike Cound, an agent who represents dozens of professional women’s basketball players. “It’s lowered the overall average salaries a little bit, but other countries, especially Turkey, have stepped up, upped their money because they realize they can get players they didn’t previously have access to.”What to Know About the Brittney Griner CaseCard 1 of 4What to Know About the Brittney Griner CaseWhat happened? More

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      Brittney Griner’s Guilty Verdict Strengthens Supporters’ Resolve

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      The W.N.B.A. star was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony, but her supporters insist they will do “whatever we can to get her home.”Nothing about Thursday’s proceedings in a Russian courthouse, where the W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner was being tried on drug smuggling charges, surprised experts familiar with Russia’s legal process. Griner was convicted and sentenced to a penal colony for nine years — just one year shy of the maximum sentence.Her conviction was thought to be a formality and a prerequisite for a prisoner swap that could lead to her return to the United States.“I think the negotiations will accelerate now that there’s finality to the alleged court process,” said Jonathan Franks, who has worked with the family of Trevor R. Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was returned to the United States in a prisoner swap with Russia in April. Reed was also sentenced to nine years of imprisonment after he was convicted of assault, a charge his family considered to be spurious and politically motivated.“One thing Americans need to realize is, we’re dealing with thugs,” Franks said. “The people who take our folks hostage or wrongfully detain them, it’s just state-sponsored kidnapping. They’re thugs. Sometimes, in order to get thugs’ attention, they only understand strength.”Last week, the U.S. State Department said it had made a “substantial offer” to the Russian government for Griner and Paul N. Whelan, an American who has been detained in Russia since 2018. Whelan was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison. But now that Griner’s trial is over, experts said even more patience would be required from those who support her. After U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken publicly said that the United States had offered Russia a deal, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told reporters that prisoner swaps were negotiated quietly.William Pomeranz, the acting director of the Kennan Institute and an expert on Russian law, said: “There’s no incentive for Russia to do any favors for the United States.”“I am not optimistic that the diplomatic deal will take place any time soon,” he said, pointing to Peskov’s statement and the poor relations between the two countries because of the war in Ukraine.Griner has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17 when Russian customs officials at an airport near Moscow said they had found hashish oil, a cannabis derivative, in a vape pen in her luggage. The U.S. State Department announced in May that it considered Griner to be “wrongfully detained,” which meant her case would be handled by the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. The State Department said it would work to secure her release, no matter how her trial ended.In both the United States and Russia, Griner’s teammates and coaches have offered their support. Members of her Russian team, UMMC Yekaterinburg, testified on Griner’s behalf during her trial.Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, left, said she was “feeling sad and feeling sick” after Griner was convicted on Thursday. Stewart had played in Russia with Griner for UMMC Yekaterinburg.Richard Ellis/UPI/ShutterstockIn the United States, several W.N.B.A. players who had also played in Russia coordinated a social media campaign on Wednesday, the day before her trial ended.Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the W.N.B.A. players’ union, posted a photograph on Instagram of herself playing for her Russian team, Dynamo Kursk.“Like me, she has great memories from her time playing and returned year after year to compete in Russia,” Ogwumike wrote. She added: “I am asking that in honor of all our great experiences competing in Russia and around the world, out of love and humanity, that you show her mercy and understanding. Please be kind to Brittney Griner.”Although the players’ appeals did not appear to affect the proceedings, they had value in showing solidarity with Griner and her UMMC Yekaterinburg teammates who spoke on her behalf, said Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a Russian historian who has consulted with the players’ union during Griner’s detention.“Brittney’s Russian teammates and her coach, those who testified on her behalf in Russia really put themselves at risk because Russia just recently passed even more stringent laws about cooperating with foreigners,” St. Julian-Varnon said. She said the W.N.B.A. players’ public statements were “giving them a nod and saying they appreciated what they did.”St. Julian-Varnon started advising the union shortly after Griner was detained. She said early on she told the players to expect a long process, that they should not expect Griner to be released before her trial and that even if her sentence were light, that would mean at least five years.Now that Griner has been convicted, St. Julian-Varnon is still urging caution.“This does not mean she’s going to be involved in a prisoner swap any time soon,” she said. “Just keep that in mind because this is still a process, but it’s the next step in the process. It could be weeks. It could be months. A lot of it depends on Russia.”The Plight of Brittney Griner in RussiaThe American basketball star has endured months in a Russian prison on charges of smuggling hashish oil into the country.The Ordeal, in Her Own Words: During her trial, Ms. Griner said she had been tossed into a bewildering legal system with little explanation of what she might do to try to defend herself. Who Is Viktor Bout?: The man who could be part of a prisoner swap to release Ms. Griner has been accused of supplying arms to Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and rebels in Rwanda.Hostage Diplomacy: In recent years, several Americans have been swept up by hostile governments looking to use them as bargaining chips. Brittney Griner might be one of them.The N.B.A.’s Low Profile: The league has been mostly quiet in the public campaign to free Ms. Griner, even though it founded and still partly owns the W.N.B.A. Here’s why.Terri Jackson, the executive director of the W.N.B.A. players’ union, said Griner’s conviction would not change how the players support her. For months, they spoke out publicly and made other demonstrations of support, such as wearing T-shirts with Griner’s initials and jersey number, 42.The Phoenix Mercury, Griner’s team since she was drafted No. 1 overall in 2013, held a rally for Griner on July 6. Fans held up signs and wore T-shirts and jerseys to show their support.Phoenix Mercury/Via Reuters“Just really feeling sad and feeling sick for Brittney and hoping that she gets home as soon as possible,” said Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart, a four-time All-Star who played with Griner in Russia. “Now that the trial is done and the sentencing happened, I know she’s got to be in a very emotional state and just want her to know that we’re still continuing to do whatever we can to get her home.”When asked if the N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. would change anything about their tactics, Mike Bass, an N.B.A. spokesman, said both leagues would continue to support the State Department, White House “and other allies in and outside government in the effort to get Brittney home as soon as possible.”The tense relationship between the United States and Russia has not eased in the months since Griner’s detention. She was jailed shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the United States has sent military equipment to Ukraine in its fight against Russia. On Monday, the White House said it would send $550 million in additional arms to Ukraine for the war.St. Julian-Varnon said that could hamper negotiations for Griner’s release, which was not a problem for Russia. “It only hurts the credibility of the Biden administration,” she said. “There’s no impetus for Russia to do anything immediately.”That stance most likely will not sit well with Griner’s supporters. Paris Hatcher is the executive director of Black Feminist Future, a social justice organization that created the #BringBrittneyHome hashtag campaign. She said her initial excitement over a possible prisoner swap for Griner dissipated after Thursday’s verdict.Hatcher said the organization would consider options to keep Griner’s case on the forefront of the minds of politicians.“Will that mean that we’ll be reaching back out to elected officials that we had been in conversation with about the critical nature of this case?” Hatcher said. “Oftentimes, you just don’t have enough information. Now, you have the information. Whatever was making you hesitate, it’s been six months.”Hatcher added: “Whatever swap that needs to happen, let it happen. Make it happen.” More

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      Outrage Grows in the U.S. Over Brittney Griner’s Sentencing

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      The W.N.B.A. star Brittney Griner’s friends and colleagues expressed support and sadness for her after a Russian court found her guilty of attempting to smuggle illegal narcotics into Russia and sentenced her to nine years in a penal colony.“Just really feeling sad and feeling sick for Brittney and hoping that she gets home as soon as possible,” said Breanna Stewart, a four-time W.N.B.A. All-Star who had played with Griner on the Russian team UMMC Yekaterinburg since 2020. “Now that the trial is done and the sentencing happened, I know she’s got to be in a very emotional state and just want her to know that we’re still continuing to do whatever we can to get her home.”Griner has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17, when Russian customs officials at an airport near Moscow said they found hashish oil in vape cartridges in her luggage. Her trial began on July 1 and the conviction had been widely expected. The U.S. State Department has said that Griner is being wrongfully detained and that it has been working to negotiate her release.Griner’s family has sought help from Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor who is working to secure the release of Griner and of Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018.“Today’s sentencing of Brittney Griner was severe by Russian legal standards and goes to prove what we have known all along, that Brittney is being used as a political pawn,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, said on Twitter. “We appreciate and continue to support the efforts of @POTUS and @SecBlinken to get a deal done swiftly to bring Brittney, Paul and all Americans home.”What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 4What happened? More

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      Brittney Griner Back in Russian Court as Lawyers Plead for Leniency

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      Escorted by a masked police officer with a dog, her wrists handcuffed, the American basketball star Brittney Griner appeared in a Russian court on Tuesday for another hearing in a trial that is likely to end with her conviction in the middle of this month, her lawyers said.One of the best players of her generation, Ms. Griner has been caught up in a confrontation between Russia and the United States over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As the case is heard in a courtroom, the wrangling over Ms. Griner’s fate has shifted increasingly to the diplomatic arena, with Russia and the United States signaling her possible involvement in an exchange for high-profile Russians in U.S. custody.Last week, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the American government had “put a substantial proposal on the table,” although he declined to discuss the details. On Thursday, he discussed the matter with his Russian counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, in their first phone call since the war in Ukraine. But no breakthroughs were reported, and no progress is expected before Anna S. Sotnikova, a judge in the town of Khimki, near Moscow, delivers a verdict in the case.Ms. Griner, 31, was detained in a Moscow airport while traveling to Yekaterinburg, Russia, to play for a local team there about one week before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Customs officials found two vape cartridges containing less than one gram of hashish oil in her luggage.News of her detention was made public only after the war started, however. She was charged with attempting to smuggle a significant amount of illegal narcotics into Russia, an offense that carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.What to Know About Brittney Griner’s Detention in RussiaCard 1 of 5What happened? More