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The Free Press
The Cynical Exploitation of Brittney Griner
The Cynical Exploitation of Brittney Griner
Brittney Griner is escorted to the courtroom in Khimki. (Kirill Kudryavtsev via Getty Images)
Who benefits from America's infighting?
By Peter Savodnik
09.08.22 — Culture and Ideas
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The Free Press
The Free Press
The Cynical Exploitation of Brittney Griner

Brittney Griner—the WNBA star recently sentenced by a Russian court to nine years in prison for bringing vape cartridges with trace amounts of hashish oil into the country—is almost definitely not a spy. She knows no state secrets, no names of any moles, no launch codes. Her strategic value to the United States is approximately zero. 

But American offici…

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Peter Savodnik

Peter Savodnik is senior editor at The Free Press. Previously, he wrote for Vanity Fair, as well as GQ, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Wired, and other venues—reporting from the former Soviet Union, the Middle East, South Asia, and across the United States. His book, The Interloper: Lee Harvey Oswald Inside the Soviet Union, was published in 2013.

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