WNBA star and Olympian Brittney Griner, who was released from a Russian prison last year, encouraged American journalist Evan Gershkovich in an NBC News interview to “stay strong” following his sentencing in Russia on Friday.
Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison after he was found guilty of espionage in a case that his employer, The Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. government have condemned as a sham.
Gershkovich, 32, denied any wrongdoing in the case that went to trial last month in the city of Yekaterinburg, more than a year after he was arrested in the southern Russian city on espionage charges.
Griner, who was released in December after serving about 10 months in a Russian penal colony, said on Friday her heart goes out to Gershkovich and his loved ones.
“I went through that, and I understand what that means,” Griner said.
“We have to get him back, we have to,” she said, with a message to the journalist: “Don’t lose hope.”
In February 2022, Griner traveled to Russia to play her eighth season in the country’s women’s basketball league. She was arrested at a Moscow airport after two vials of cannabis oil, totaling less than a gram, were found in her luggage at the airport in Moscow.
Griner pleaded guilty at her trial in July 2022 but said she had no criminal intent and had packed the canisters inadvertently as she hurriedly prepared for her flight. She was sentenced to nine years in prison.
She was released after the Biden administration negotiated her release in exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout.
Griner is gearing up to head to Paris for her third Olympics — her first time traveling abroad since leaving Russia.
“I’m happy, I’m in a great place," Griner said. "I’m representing my country, the country that fought for me to come back. I’m gonna represent it well."
Griner shared that she welcomed a baby boy, Bash, with her wife last week.
Gershkovich had been found guilty of collecting secret information about the activities of a defense enterprise for the production and repair of military equipment on instructions from U.S. intelligence services.
Judge Andrei Mineyev of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court remanded Gershkovich into custody until his sentence can be legally enforced. The journalist is also expected to cover the legal fees, amounting to just over $75.
His defense team has 15 days to appeal the sentence.
