WINNING THE WORLD'S WORST LOTTERY

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Erdem Sahin

Another winner of The World's Worst Lottery is WNBA star Brittney Griner who was detained by Russian authorities and charged with drug possession. Russia claims that hashish oil was found in her luggage by Moscow area airport customs personnel on February 17. Since then, Russian authorities have denied any access by US consular officials. Read the full story here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/sports/basketball/brittney-griner-russia-congress.html

Clearly, this is a hostage situation and I don't think it is any coincidence that this happens precisely 7 days before Russia invades Ukraine. It's another example of how old school Putin's vision of warfare is-taking hostages is an ancient move, hell, there's tales in the Bible about this. Standard Operating Procedure. A second component to this action is this sort of behavior is frowned upon as "uncivilized" by many policymakers in the West. This incident is Putin needling the West for this view which he considers as a pathetic sign of weakness. 

What terrible luck for this woman. Of all the targets the Russians could choose, she is selected for what could very well be many years of captivity. The following post I think sums up the situation.