Former basketball player and current authoritarian friend Dennis Rodman claimed he has been given permission to ask Russia to free Brittney Griner.
“I got permission to go to Russia to help that girl,” Rodman told NBC News. “I’m trying to go this week.”
Rodman did not say whether the White House has cleared the visit, nor did he say whether it was an official diplomatic mission. There are currently no restrictions on U.S. citizens visiting the country, though the State Department has strongly advised people to avoid traveling to the country after it launched its war against Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENT
Rodman has not been shy about his taste for dictators. The NBA star has made multiple trips to North Korea to hang out with its leader Kim Jong Un, infamously weeping on CNN in 2018 while discussing the meeting between Kim and former President Donald Trump. He told NBC News the same extended to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, whom he once called cool in 2014.
“I know Putin too well,” he said.
Griner, a WNBA player, was detained in Russia earlier this year after she was found in possession of marijuana oil. She was later found guilty in a Russian court, though the U.S. has alleged her detention was being used as political leverage in response to U.S. sanctions against Russia over its war.
