The Worm has declared it to NBC. After his friendship with Kim Jong Un, he is now trying to curry favor with Putin to bring the basketball player sentenced to 9 years for drug possession back to the US
Dennis Rodman, 61, is ready to travel to Russia to ask for the release of Brittney Griner, the WNBA superstar detained in Moscow since February and sentenced two weeks ago to nine years in prison for drug possession. The former Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls star told NBC: “I was allowed to go to Russia to help that girl, I’m looking to go there this week.” The US government is negotiating a prisoner swap with the Russians that would bring Griner and another American citizen, Paul Whelan, detained for espionage in exchange for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer detained in the US and sentenced to 25 years in prison, back home.
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A representative of the Biden administration said he was concerned about Rodman’s intervention, which could break the delicate balance of the deal. The player was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on February 19 because she had two cartridges for electronic cigarettes based on cannabis oil, a substance legal in the US, but prohibited in Russia, in her suitcase. A modest amount to relieve the pain from chronic injuries she has acquired during her career.
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It is not the first time that Rodman conducts informal diplomacy with an international leader who has strained relations with the United States. The former NBA champion has long been friends with North Korean Kim Jong Un, and in the past decade, he has traveled to Pyongyang several times. The Worm in 2014 called Vladimir Putin “cool” after a trip to Moscow. Four years later he showed up in Singapore on the sidelines of former President Donald Trump’s meeting with Kim.
August 22, 2022 (change August 22, 2022 | 08:42)
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