Some routine repairs on the International Space Station unveiled something mysterious last week when a Russian astronaut found holes drilled into the side of the orbiting vessel.

According to a NASA press release, two Russian astronauts by the names of Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub were on a spacewalk on October 25, attempting to repair a radiator that was leaking coolant into the vacuum of space when they found an additional irregularity.

According to an article in Space, Kononenko was inspecting one of the outer panels of the leaky radiator when he noticed what appeared to be multiple holes drilled into the surface of the radiator panel. 

“The holes have very even edges, like they’ve been drilled through,” Kononenko said to the flight controllers working in Moscow Mission Control. “There are lots of them. They are spread in a chaotic manner.”

Neither NASA nor Roscosmos, which is essentially Russia’s post-Soviet-Union-Era version of NASA, had addressed the holes as of the time this article was written to offer speculation as to how the holes may have ended up there. The only information about the holes online is all sourced back to the same information in the Space article. This is not uncommon for space agencies, however, as NASA and Roscosmos both have long-standing reputations for being very selective with what they disclose publicly, without going too deep into conspiracy theories.

After locating and documenting the mysterious holes, the spacewalk took another unexpected turn when Kononenko and Chub encountered a large blob of coolant which had broken free from the leaky radiator, posing a contamination risk.

“During the spacewalk, Kononenko and Chub inspected and photographed an external backup radiator on the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module, as well as isolated the radiator from Nauka’s cooling system,” a NASA press release said. “During the radiator inspection, a bubble of coolant liberated at the leak site and the crew wiped down their suits prior to continuing the spacewalk.”

The radiator was originally reported leaking on October 9 and was a backup radiator for another which is used to regulate temperature inside the ISS. Coolant supply for the backup radiator was cut off shortly before repairs were made, which is believed to be what led to the coolant bubble forming. According to Space, the bubble reportedly came close enough to Kononenko that one of his tethers became contaminated and had to be bagged and left outside the ISS after the spacewalk. Tethers are cables used to keep the astronauts attached to the orbiting space vessel rather than hurtling off into space (and certain death).

The two Russian astronauts reportedly gave their spacesuits a thorough wipe-down before they returned to the ISS and ended their spacewalk. Contamination risk by unknown microorganisms poses a much bigger threat in the vacuum of space than it would on Earth, according to information published by NASA, the National Institute of Health, and many others. These risks necessitate astronauts to sterilize their tools and suits before re-entering the spacecraft. 

“At the end of the spacewalk, before reentering the Poisk airlock, the two spacewalking cosmonauts as usual inspected the Roscosmos Orlan spacesuits and the tools used during the spacewalk to look for signs of coolant and wipe off any coolant as necessary,” NASA said. “The cosmonauts also wiped down their suits and tools as usual after repressurization to further reduce introduction of trace contaminates into the space station environment. Additional filtration will then be used inside the space station in order to quickly scrub the atmosphere of any remaining traces of contaminant.”

This is not the first time Roscosmos has reported holes drilled into the ISS. A Russian news agency accused a NASA astronaut of drilling holes into the ISS in 2021 due to a failed romantic relationship with another astronaut, though this was never confirmed. Another report of small holes in the ISS came earlier this year. Another report of a coolant leak from last December was caused by small meteorites, according to the Russians. In fact, there are many stories online about small holes in the ISS that go back years, many of them having to do with Russia. That is not to say the information is untrue, just a small caveat to what appears to be an ongoing problem.

Kononenko and Chub reportedly ended their spacewalk after seven hours and 41 minutes without any further complications. The Oct. 25 spacewalk was reportedly the sixth such walk in Kononenko’s career, a first for Chub and the 268th in the history of the ISS. The next spacewalk for the ISS, undertaken by NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, was actually underway at the time this article was written. It began at 8:05 a.m. EDT Monday morning and was scheduled to last about six-and-a-half-hours.

The post Russian Astronauts Find Mysterious Holes in International Space Station appeared first on High Times.

The post Russian Astronauts Find Mysterious Holes in International Space Station appeared first on Paradise Found.

An American musician and former paratrooper was arrested in Moscow, Russia on drug dealing charges as he was paraded on state T.V. in a cage—and people have questions. 

Reuters reports that musician and rock band manager Michael Travis Leake, 51, was arrested on June 6, and Russian authorities say he was selling drugs. Leake is suspected of selling mephedrone, a drug often described as having effects somewhere in-between cocaine and MDMA. Russia banned mephedrone in 2010. Suspicions abound however, because Leake has spoken out on television about censorship and oppression in Russia.

Rossiya 24—state-owned, Russian language news channel—showed him standing in a court cage. Russian tabloid network Ren TV showed Leake being detained on June 6 in Moscow, lying on the floor in his underwear and a T-shirt with his hands tied behind his back.

Leake is apparently denying any involvement: “I don’t understand why I’m here,” Leake’s statement to police read, Ren TV reports. I don’t admit guilt, I don’t believe I could have done what I’m accused of because I don’t know what I’m accused of.”

Russian authorities routinely accuse journalists of being spies. Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, for instance, who is a U.S. citizen, was arrested last March on “espionage” charges.

“On June 10, 2023, Moscow’s Khamovniki District Court took a measure of restraint against a U.S. citizen,” Moscow’s courts of general jurisdiction stated on Telegram. “The former paratrooper and a musician, who is accused of running a drug dealing business involving young people, will remain in custody until Aug. 6, 2023.” The Russian court statement misspelled his name “Travis Michael Leek.”

U.S. officials confirmed Leake’s detention Saturday.

“We can confirm that Michael Travis Leake was arrested and is detained in Moscow. Embassy officials attended his arraignment on June 10,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told CNN. “We will continue to monitor the case closely.”

Who is Michael Travis Leake?

For an episode of Parts Unknown on CNN, the late host (and cannabis fan) Anthony Bourdain personally hand-picked Leake to participate in the show. Leake and others filmed in 2014 in Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia.

Leake discussed his frustrations with censorship in Russia and recalled an incident involving his band and MTV.

“This was a documentary series about musicians standing up and risking their lives in some cases, to stand up against government abuse of power, government corruption,” Leake said on Parts Unknown. “And yet, a foreign government was able to editorially control what Americans viewers see on their TV screens. That to me is a scandal of epic proportion.”

It was apparently one of Bourdain’s favorite interviews.

Leake will remain in custody until August 6. Leake’s mother Glenda Garcia told CNN about her mounting worries, including the notion that her son could be used as more or less a political pawn.

Leake was formerly a songwriter and musician in the Russia-based rock band Lovi Noch, which means “Catch the Night” in Russian.

Tendency to Arrest Americans in Russia

Amid the war in the Ukraine, U.S.-Russia tensions are high, which isn’t good for Americans who bring drugs into the country.

Last December, U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was released after President Biden and authorities negotiated a prisoner swap. Griner faced nine years in a penal colony for possessing vape cartridges containing weed oil. 

In a controversial move, the U.S. agreed to trade Griner for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.

But U.S. authorities accused Russia of using people like Griner and others as political pawns.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony after being convicted of “espionage” charges.

Also don’t forget the Americans who aren’t well-known. Sixty-one-year-old Marc Fogel was arrested in Russia last year after authorities found medical cannabis in his possession.

Interfax, a Russian news agency, reported that if found guilty, Leake could face up to 12 years in prison.

The post Russia Arrests American Musician on Drug Charges appeared first on High Times.

The post Russia Arrests American Musician on Drug Charges appeared first on Paradise Found.

Brittney Griner is back on American soil following ten months in Russian custody on drug charges. But other U.S. citizens remain locked up in Russia, including a 61-year-old man whose detention mirrors the experience of Griner. 

Politico published a story last week on Marc Fogel, who was arrested last year after Russian authorities found medical marijuana in his possession. 

“Fogel’s case bears a striking similarity to Griner’s, which has captured national headlines since the WNBA star was detained in Russia in February 2022. Like Griner, Fogel — a 61-year-old history teacher from Pennsylvania who lived in Russia while teaching at the Anglo-American School in Moscow — was taken into custody by Russian authorities in August 2021 after customs officials at a Russian airport discovered around half an ounce of medical marijuana stashed in his luggage,” Politico reported. 

“The drugs had been prescribed to him by doctors in the U.S. to help treat chronic pain stemming from a series of injuries and operations, but Fogel’s reasons didn’t matter. Ten months later, in June 2022, a Russian court convicted him of drug trafficking charges and sentenced him to 14 years in prison. In October, Fogel was transferred from a Moscow detention center to one of Russia’s notorious penal colonies, where he is slated to serve the remainder of his sentence,” the outlet continued. 

Griner, a perennial all-star for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and one of the most decorated women’s basketball players ever, was released last week after U.S. and Russian officials negotiated a prisoner swap. In exchange for the release of Griner, the U.S. agreed to free Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.

The deal drew some criticism from those who lamented the release of Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death.” There was also disappointment that the U.S. was unable to also secure the release of Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen who has been detained by Russia since 2018 on espionage charges.

U.S. officials sought a two-for-one deal –– Griner and Whelan in exchange for Bout –– but such an arrangement never materialized.

“We’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan,” President Joe Biden said last week following Griner’s release. 

Griner was arrested at a Russian airport in February after officials found a small amount of cannabis oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty to the charges, but said she did not intend to break the law. In August, a Russian court found her guilty and sentenced her to nine years in prison. 

Griner’s detention attracted international attention, and emerged as a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Russia. Foley’s case, meanwhile, has flown decidedly under the radar. 

“The State Department has not granted him “wrongfully detained” status, despite repeated appeals from a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Fogel’s lawyers. (A spokesperson for the State Department declined to comment on the specifics of Fogel’s case, saying: “The Department continuously reviews the circumstances surrounding the detentions of U.S. nationals overseas, including those in Russia, for indicators that they are wrongful.”) In the media, Fogel’s detention has been overshadowed by the coverage of Griner and Paul Whelan, an American businessman and former Marine who has been held in Russia since 2018 on espionage charges,” Politico reported last week.

“It’s a bit mysterious to me why we [aren’t] talking about three Americans — now, thankfully, two Americans — instead of just one,” said Michael McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, told Politico. “He’s not just some random guy that got arrested — he was part of our community … He taught our kids, the kids of U.S. government officials and he taught our military’s kids.”

The post Brittney Griner is Free, But Another American Remains Locked Up in Russia for Pot appeared first on High Times.

The post Brittney Griner is Free, But Another American Remains Locked Up in Russia for Pot appeared first on Paradise Found.

A Russian court on Tuesday denied Brittney Griner’s appeal, upholding the American basketball star’s nine-year prison sentence on drug charges. Griner received the sentence in August, and has been in Russian custody since she was arrested at a Moscow airport in February.

“We are very disappointed,” Griner’s lawyers said in a statement, as quoted by The New York Times, after the court upheld the conviction on Tuesday. “The verdict contains numerous defects, and we hoped that the court of appeal would take them into consideration.”

Griner is now set to begin serving her sentence, although it will be slightly reduced. According to the Associated Press, the Moscow region court said in its ruling on Tuesday that “the time Griner will have to serve in prison will be recalculated with her time in pre-trial detention taken into account.” The AP reported that one day “in pre-trial detention will be counted as 1.5 days in prison, so the basketball star will have to serve around eight years in prison.”

Griner, a star for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, was arrested in February while traveling to Russia to suit up for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian team for which she had played during the WNBA’s offseason since 2014.

Officials at the airport found cannabis oil in Griner’s luggage.

Her detention has veered into the realm of diplomacy, emerging as another standoff in the strained relations between the United States and Russia.

The two countries have discussed a potential prisoner swap that would secure the release of both Griner and Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen who has been detained in a Russian prison on espionage charges since 2018.

The U.S. has offered to release Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States, in exchange for Griner and Whalen, but a deal has yet to come to fruition.

Earlier this month, Bill Richardson, who previously served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and governor of New Mexico, said he was “cautiously optimistic” that both Griner and Whalen will be released by the end of the year.

Richardson, an experienced negotiator for families of detainees and hostages, traveled to Moscow last month to meet with Russian officials.

“I got the sense that the Russian officials that I met with, that I’ve known over the years, are ready to talk,” Richardson said in an interview on CNN. “I got a good sense from the Russians – the vibrations – but I’m not a government official.”

“I’m not part of the government, the government channel. I’ve always made that clear. I respect that. I think any decision, for instance, a release, a prisoner exchange, has to be made by the President. And I think the administration has done a good job on that,” he added.

President Joe Biden met with the families of Griner and Whalen last month.

In August, following Griner’s conviction, Biden said that his administration “will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible.”

“Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney,” Biden said in a statement. 

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that Griner’s “lawyers said they had not decided whether to take the case any further.”

“We need to discuss this with our client,” the lawyers said in a statement, as quoted by the Times. “We generally think that we must use all the available legal tools, especially given the harsh and unprecedented nature of her verdict.”

The post Griner Denied Appeal, Drug Conviction Upheld by Russian Court appeared first on High Times.

The post Griner Denied Appeal, Drug Conviction Upheld by Russian Court appeared first on Paradise Found.

It was the C.I.A. that sent me to Russia. Not that I’d planned it that way. But after studying Russian language and culture for three years at the University of Miami, my yearning to visit the great Slavic motherland was impractical for one idiotic reason: no money. So I took a job in the school library’s Slavic Collection.

The only irony was that this magnanimously endowed library of rare Russian books and obscene journals, which would have been priceless to me during my studies, was something I never knew existed. The only people who seemed to know it was there were these very straight and hard-boiled guys, no flies on them, who’d come in on quiet days (while I’d be smoking grass among the stacks and reading Crocodil, the Russian humor magazine) and request the latest issue of, say Soviet Navy Monthly, or a Kremlin report on Chilean youth groups. A few weeks later I’d read in the newspapers about the sudden unrest among Chilean youth. My boss, a jovial Pole, confirmed that many of our visitors were indeed C.I.A., and he implied that the Slavic collection was C.I.A. property. Anyway, I worked there until I saved enough money to go to Russia.

Soon I was airborne with the other members of the commercial charter tour that would take us to Moscow for three weeks and Leningrad same. The entire prospect loomed before me seductive, enigmatic, enticing, but I hated the thought of going six weeks without getting high, and said as much to “Texas Jeannie,” a buxom Southern belle who’d taken the tour a year before.

“Don’t worry,” she drawled. “Them Ruskies got some of the best danged shit east of the Pecos, or west of it, depending how y’all see it.” Although I was slightly puzzled by her avowal of Russian high times, my fears were further allayed by an incident in Poland, where we stopped over to change planes and visit beloved Chopin’s birthplace. “Y’all oughta see what’s growing in the back yard,” said Jeannie. At first I took this to be an invitation of a perversely lubricious nature, but I caught on when we went in back of the great composer’s birthplace and found a patch of marijuana growing up stout and firm. From this moment forth my understanding of detente went through cartwheels or reconsideration.

On our second night in Moscow, I wandered the streets, and returned from sightseeing to find a note from Jeannie on my hotel door. When I got to her room, I found her and five other tourists sitting around on the floor, their heads obscured by a cloud of familiar-smelling smoke. At Jeannie’s welcome bidding, I fell to my knees and was handed a pipeful of dark green flakes of kaif, which smells like hashish but tasted like grass. It had come from the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia—just like Stalin—and it was just as powerful.

Jeannie had traded one of her many pair of blue jeans to a Russian head for the kaif we were smoking. She explained that the hunger of Russian youth for things American, like jeans, rock and jazz albums, psychedelic posters, and what have you, is so great that they’ll barter samovars, balalaikas, perhaps military secrets, and of course kaif in the most promiscuous fashion to get their hands on the trappings of decadent Amerikan youth culture. The realization that my old Moby Grape albums were the equivalent of cigarettes and stockings in a Saigon black market brought home to me the ineffable karmic value of never throwing away anything, no matter how faddy or ephemeral it may seem to jaded American hippies.

During my last week in Moscow, I was with some of my new Russian friends looking for a place to party. This is a great problem in Russia because of the acute housing shortage, which forces the Russians to live in rather close quarters. I was reminded of the familiar high school scene back home, where large parts of our youth are spent scouting locations to make out in.

Russians find it odd that Americans all have their own apartments, cars, food, cigarettes, orgasms: in the Soviet Union, these things are collectivized. Old and young must share their living rooms, their likes and dislikes, their cutlery and crockery, their vodka and ideologies, which are “monolithic” only in their mutual antagonism.

In short, the chances of our finding an orgy site seemed slim, when my friend Volodya struck up a conversation with a little man sporting a black goatee and heavy horn-rim glasses thick as stove lids. He turned out to be a sort of Russian bohemian, and in minutes had invited us to his apartment in a tottering old housing project. He told us we could use his little two-room “flet”, even his bed, while he socialized with us and shared our wine and kaif.

As it turned out, he fancied himself a painter and his apartment was crowded with awful day-glo canvasses of dogs pissing into space, lampposts shooting darts at children, and a picture of a man spreading his arsecheeks to reveal a peep at the infinite cosmos through his hole. Our host was one of those genuine Mad Russians you hear about. Twelve of us packed boisterously into the tiny place, puffing pipes of kaif and taking turns balling on the bed; the little man got wilder and wilder, drinking more than half of our wine. We played some of my rock albums—Hendrix and Pink Floyd—on his record player. I asked him if he had any examples of Russian rock music, and he replied, “You want to see example of Russian rock, da?” “Da,” I said. He went to a shelf and took down a paperjacketed album. He placed the record on the turntable, we listened for no more than a few seconds, and then he heaved the record out the window. “That’s Russian music,” he said.

“I knew Nicholas before he was a superstar,” he raved, reminiscing about his family. “My mother-in-law boy, is she fat! I took her to the Mayday parade and a C.I.A. Man offered to buy my missile secrets. . . . No, really, she’s very talented. She’s being sent to America on the cultural exchange program. In exchange, we’re getting Texas, Brooklyn, and Raquel Welch!” He began to roar out his life story, which became more and more horrible. Finally he dropped his trousers to show a long ugly scar left by Stalin’s torturers. At one point, I was bedding a young Muscovite honey when the Mad Russian ran in, brandishing a small scimitar. My friends dragged him away, and soon we left him sleeping on the floor, his snores and nightmarish outcries mingling with the laughter, sobs, arguments, and songs that poured into the common courtyard from every apartment. Somehow, the whole episode seemed to epitomize Moscow.

Leningrad is closer to the West than Moscow in more ways than one. During the centuries of Tsarist rule, the city reflected the Romanovs’ imitation of Western European culture. Even now that tradition persists. Walking down the Nevsky Prospect for the first time, I actually felt at ease among the younger, long-haired, more stylishly attired communists, some of whom were actually promenading in tie-dyed shirts.

The kids are hip and kaif is plentiful. With three young Komsomoltsy (members of the Lenin Youth Organization) I dropped in one evening to a local disco called the “Molotok” to hear the top local rock band. Their music, consisting of loud fancy guitar chords, lots of showy drum licks, and [an] almost funky bass line, was surprisingly together, and reminiscent of the high school bands that played in garages back home. On an impulse, I asked the drummer if I could sit in for one number. “Konyeshno!” he cried, smiling. The leader then announced that an American rock and roller was going to play, and that brought down the house.

I could barely hear myself through their applause and shouts. For the next several days I was followed around by several “groupskies” who believed I was a big rock star, and I did nothing to disillusion them.

Soon I met my first Russian dope dealer. His name was Misha, and he was as freaky as any Russian could hope to be. He was tall, swarthy, and bearded. He lived in his black market Levis and cowboy jacket. A signpainter by profession, he spent his time with foreign tourists and sold them dope, and had, in fact, served five years in a concentration camp for this activity. In a bastardized argot of hip Russian and Leningrad street slang, he invited us to his apartment to smoke some gashgish.

Gashgish is the people’s hash, imported from the Uzbekistan, a central Asian Soviet Republic near Afghanistan. He shared his apartment with a comely Lenin youth named Natasha. Our first time there, Misha emptied a papirosa (cigarette), and mixed the bitter Russian tobacco with some hash from a small leather pouch, then poured the mixture adroitly into the cigarette. I found it a bit harsh, but what the hell.

Later I gave Misha an American pipe and some screens and he was so impressed (and stoned) that he vowed never to smoke hash in cigarettes again, but Natasha swore, in her revisionist way, to go on smoking good Soviet papirosas. She did, however, take to “shotgunning” her reefers quite hungrily.

Misha’s scene was pretty loose, so one day I asked him what the neighbors thought.

“They think I am crazy,” he said. “And do you know, they are right? Every time they see me coming, the old one-leg and the ugly witch, they run into their rooms and slam the doors.” I regaled him with a few Florida redneck tales.

The last time I saw Misha, we got higher than Yuri Gagarin. Dostoeyevsky, that dark Russian, who once said, “consciousness is a disease,” would have been proud of us. Our minds met in cosmic detente, and Misha and I became increasingly mystic. A very Russian thing to be. I told him of my long-time dream of getting stoned with a genuine Russian. He told me about his dream of getting stoned with a real American.

“Est bog!” he cried excitedly, “there is a god!”

Read the full issue here.

The post From the Archives: Hash in the U.S.S.R. (1974) appeared first on High Times.

The post From the Archives: Hash in the U.S.S.R. (1974) appeared first on Paradise Found.

Never one to shy away from springing into action on the fly, former NBA star Dennis Rodman announced his mission to aid in the recovery of American basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to over nine years in prison in Russia over a small amount of cannabis oil. The U.S. government, however, has a different plan.

“I got permission to go to Russia to help that girl,” Rodman told NBC News. “I’m trying to go this week.”

A “senior Biden official” seemed to suggest he wasn’t amused by Rodman’s intentions. “It’s public information that the administration has made a significant offer to the Russians and anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to complicate and hinder release efforts,” said the official.

When Griner was detained by Russian authorities, she had just 0.7 grams of THC oil on her person, Unilad reports. Since then, Griner’s case has become a divisive political flashpoint inside and out of the United States. 

A Russian court on August 4 found Griner guilty of drug charges and sentenced her to nine and a half years in prison, as tensions remain high between Moscow and the United States amid the Ukraine invasion.

Rodman’s plan could interfere with the Biden administration’s plan to trade prisoners.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken revealed last July that the United States offered to release a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States in exchange for the release of Griner and Paul Whelan, both U.S. citizens currently being held by the Russian government. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador, told ABC News on August 16 that hopes remain optimistic for an exchange.

Senior Biden officials don’t want anyone to meddle in the exchange. In addition, the U.S. Department of State issued a Level 4 travel advisory on behalf of Americans considering stepping foot in Russia amid war, the New York Post reports.

“Do not travel to Russia due to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine by Russian military forces, the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials, the singling out of U.S. citizens in Russia by Russian government security officials including for detention, the arbitrary enforcement of local law, limited flights into and out of Russia, the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens in Russia, COVID-19-related restrictions, and terrorism. U.S. citizens residing or traveling in Russia should depart Russia immediately,” the advisory reads. “Exercise increased caution due to wrongful detentions.”

Rodman, however, added that he knows President Putin “too well.”

Could Rodman Do It Again?

Rodman’s powers of persuasion have been used before, albeit through unconventional means—often leading into controversy.

Rodman cozied up with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, making multiple visits to the country over the past 10 years. Then in 2018, he took part in the meeting of former President Donald Trump and Kim Jung-Un in Singapore. Rodman claimed that it was because of a letter he wrote to Kim Jong-Un, that North Korea released American missionary Kenneth Bae who had been imprisoned for over two and a half years in the country for “unspecified acts.”

Rodman is also friendly to Russia, specifically President Vladimir Putin, especially after visiting Moscow in 2014. These relationships with leaders like Kim Jong-Un and Putin have made Twitter, well, a bit suspicious.

Rodman’s relationship with pot is fairly complicated, it turns out. “I don’t smoke weed,” Rodman tweeted in 2014. “Or use any illegal drugs. That’s not my deal. I just get high on life.” However, Rodman invested heavily in PotCoin, a cryptocurrency designed for the legal cannabis industry, and has launched several NFTs lately.

 Weed may not be Rodman’s thing per se, but it’s very common in the modern NBA. Jay Williams famously told Fox Business that he estimates 75-80% of NBA basketball players smoke weed off-season.

For the time being, Griner remains behind bars until an exchange can be finalized.

The post Dennis Rodman Proposes To Negotiate Russia Brittney Griner Release appeared first on High Times.

The post Dennis Rodman Proposes To Negotiate Russia Brittney Griner Release appeared first on Paradise Found.

Lawyers for the American basketball star Brittney Griner said Monday that they have filed an appeal of her guilty verdict by a Russian court in a drug smuggling case that has turned into a diplomatic standoff.

The appeal comes nearly two weeks after Griner was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison on charges stemming from her February arrest in a Moscow airport.

It also comes at a time when the United States and Russia are engaged in discussions regarding a potential prisoner swap involving Griner and Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.

U.S. officials have also sought the release of Paul Whelan, an American citizen who has been detained in Russia since 2018 on espionage charges, in such an exchange.

The New York Times reported that Griner’s “legal team has said that the appeal, which was expected, would most likely take up to three months to be adjudicated,” and that “Russian officials have said that all legal avenues must be exhausted before a potential exchange can be discussed.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late last month that the United States’ offer to release Bout in exchange for Griner and Whelan represented a “substantial proposal,” but Russian officials have so far balked at the arrangement.

As reported by CNN and others, Alexander Darchiev, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North American Department director, confirmed the prisoner negotiations over the weekend.

“This quite sensitive issue of the swap of convicted Russian and US citizens is being discussed through the channels defined by our Presidents. These individuals are, indeed, being discussed. The Russian side has long been seeking the release of Viktor Bout. The details should be left to professionals, proceeding from the ‘do not harm’ principle,” Darchiev told Russian state media TASS, as quoted by CNN.

Griner, who pleaded guilty to the drug charges but insisted she did not intend to break the law, was convicted on August 4. Prosecutors had sought a nine-and-a-half year prison sentence––only slightly lower than the maximum sentence of 10 years. The judge presiding over the case handed down a nine year sentence.

Griner was arrested on February 17 while traveling back to Russia to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian team for whom she has suited up during the WNBA’s offseason since 2014.

Authorities at the airport found cannabis oil in her luggage, leading to a prolonged detention that has become another source of tension between the United States and Russia.

In May, the U.S. Department of State reclassified Griner as “wrongfully detained.”

President Joe Biden denounced Griner’s guilty verdict and conviction earlier this month, and vowed to bring her home.

“It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates,” Biden said in a statement.

“Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney,” he added.

“My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible,” the president continued.

At a hearing last month, Griner testified that the language interpreter provided by Russian authorities during her questioning provided incomplete translations of what she said, and that she was never provided a sufficient explanation of her rights.

According to The New York Times, Griner’s “defense team argued in the appeal that the Khimki court had ignored ‘serious procedural violations during detention, extraction of physical evidence, arrest and investigation.’”

The post Brittney Griner Appeals Conviction in Russian Drug Case appeared first on High Times.

The post Brittney Griner Appeals Conviction in Russian Drug Case appeared first on Paradise Found.

President Joe Biden has called on Moscow to release Brittney Griner and said the United States will continue to secure the freedom of the WNBA star, who was sentenced to nine years in prison by a Russian judge last week.

“It’s unacceptable, and I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends, and teammates,” Biden said in a statement on Thursday.

Earlier that day, Griner was found guilty on drug charges stemming from her February arrest in a Moscow airport. The prosecutor in the case asked the court to sentence Griner to nine-and-a-half years; the judge gave her nine.

“Today, American citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is one more reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongfully detaining Brittney,” Biden said in his statement following the guilty verdict.

Griner was arrested on February 17 while traveling back to compete for the Russian women’s basketball team UMMC Ekaterinburg, for whom she has played since 2014 during the WNBA’s offseason. Officials at the airport found cannabis oil in Griner’s luggage, leading to the drug charges.

Her detention has created a diplomatic standoff between the U.S. and Russia, with the two sides negotiating a potential prisoner exchange in recent days. Late last month, the Biden administration proposed the release of Griner and Paul Whelan, a U.S. citizen who has been imprisoned on espionage charges in Russia since 2018, in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.

Russia reportedly rejected that offer.

In his statement last week, Biden pledged to secure the release of both Griner and Whelan.

“My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible,” the president said.

Appearing in court hours before she was sentenced on Thursday, Griner, a star for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, apologized for the incident in February. She previously pleaded guilty to the charges, but said she did not intend to break the law.

“I want to apologize to my teammates, my club, my fans and the city of (Yekaterinburg) for my mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on them,” Griner said, as quoted by the Associated Press. “I want to also apologize to my parents, my siblings, the Phoenix Mercury organization back at home, the amazing women of the WNBA, and my amazing spouse back at home.”

Griner also spoke of her experience playing professionally in Russia.

“I had no idea that the team, the cities, the fans, my teammates would make such a great impression on me over the 6 1/2 years that I spent here,” she said, according to the Associated Press. “I remember vividly coming out of the gym and all the little girls that were in the stands there waiting on me, and that’s what kept making me come back here.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Griner’s conviction last week.

“It puts a spotlight on our very significant turn with Russia’s legal system and the Russian government’s use of wrongful detentions to advance its own agenda using individuals as political pawns,” Blinken said Friday, as quoted by ESPN.

Blinken’s counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, alluded to the discussions of a prisoner swap with the U.S., saying that Russia was prepared to negotiate.

“We are ready to discuss this topic, but within the framework of the channel that was agreed upon by presidents Putin and Biden,” Lavrov said, as quoted by ESPN. “If the Americans decide to once again resort to public diplomacy … that is their business and I would even say that it is their problem.”

The post Biden: U.S. To ‘Pursue Every Possible Avenue’ To Bring Griner Home appeared first on High Times.

The post Biden: U.S. To ‘Pursue Every Possible Avenue’ To Bring Griner Home appeared first on Paradise Found.

A United States citizen, teacher, and lecturer was slapped with 14 years of hard time in prison for a little bit of pot found in his luggage at an airport in Moscow, Russia. It’s the latest move in a series of harsh sentences dished out on Americans in the country, including WNBA star Brittney Griner.

On August 14, 2021, Marc Hilliard Fogel, then 60, was arrested at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow when half an ounce of weed (approximately 14 grams) in various forms was discovered in his luggage. Fogel was approved by a doctor in the United States for medical cannabis for chronic pain following a series of serious surgeries.

The Fogels had been teaching abroad in places including Russia for years, but they were used to less security at that airport during previous flights. Something went terribly wrong, and Fogel told his wife he’d packed 14 vape carts and put some flower in a contact lens case. He thought he could get away with stashing some in his luggage for his trip back to Russia after a trip in the U.S. The Fogels were heading back to Moscow to celebrate Marc’s 10th year of teaching the children of U.S. diplomats.

Russian police discovered the weed, and he immediately knew the country doesn’t play games when it comes to cannabis, especially when it’s a U.S. citizen. But Fogel assumed he’d be looking at deportation, or some other punishment—not hard time.

Fogel has already spent 11 months in various Russian detainment centers for his “crime.” But hearing the judge say “14 years” was a crushing moment for Fogel and his family, The Washington Post reports.

“There’s a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that Marc will be left behind,” Jane Fogel told The Washington Post. “It’s terrifying. I would hope that President Biden and especially first lady Jill Biden, who is an educator, realize the importance of including Marc in addition to Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.”

You can’t help but make the connections to WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who is currently being detained for her “crime” of a couple of vape pens. Since Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there is a  “substantial proposal” to free both Griner and another unjustly detained American, Paul Whelan, Fogel’s family has hope that he might not have to sit in prison for 14 years.

Fogel was fed things like bowls of gruel and dried apricots, depending on what Russian prison he was in.

“He says what he wants in English, someone translates for him, one of his cellmates, and depending on how good their English is is how accurate of a picture we get of what is happening,” Anne Fogel said. “It’s very convoluted and it’s incredibly worrisome because we can’t really have an honest conversation. Everything goes through the censors. It’s harrowing.”

But for Marc, he wasn’t happy to hear Griner might be released before himself. “That hurt,” Marc Fogel wrote in a letter. “Teachers are at least as important as ballers.”

Reality in Russia

President Vladimir Putin ramped up punishments for citizens and tourists alike including one particular new law that dishes out sentences of up to 15 years in prison for people who distribute “false news” about the Russian military. Russia has been accused of using prison sentences as a “tool for exercising control over society” by the Centre for Eastern Studies.

The Fogels are now calling to President Joe Biden to step in and get him out of Russian prison—just as efforts are being made to free Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, CNN reports.

Ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, U.S.-Russian relations have obviously been strained, to say the least. It’s typical of Russia to rebrand normal U.S. citizens and athletes as drug pins, often allegedly with political motivations.

Nearly 5,000 people have already signed a petition on Change.org to free Marc Fogel from wrongful detainment in Russia.

The post Another American Caught With Weed in Russia Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison appeared first on High Times.

The post Another American Caught With Weed in Russia Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison appeared first on Paradise Found.

Brittney Griner pleaded guilty to cannabis charges in a Russian court on Thursday, nearly five months after the WNBA star and two-time Olympic champion was detained at an airport near Moscow. Griner, who has been classified as wrongfully detained by the U.S. Department of State, now faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison as punishment for her conviction.

“I’d like to plead guilty, your honor,” Griner said in English, which was then translated into Russian for the court. “But there was no intent. I didn’t want to break the law.”

“I’d like to give my testimony later. I need time to prepare,” she added, according to a report from Reuters.

Griner, the star center for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, was arrested outside Moscow in February. In March, after Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in an unprovoked attack, Russian authorities announced that Griner had been arrested while going through a customs checkpoint at an airport outside Moscow.

Her arrest has prompted an international outcry from celebrities, politicians, family, and other supporters, many of whom believe that Griner’s detention and trial are being used by Russia as political leverage as the conflict in Ukraine continues. Griner’s supporters hope that her guilty plea coupled with her wrongfully detained status in the eyes of the U.S. government will make her eligible for a prisoner swap between Russia and the U.S.

Arrested for Less Than a Gram of Weed

Griner’s trial on charges of importing vape cartridges with less than a gram of cannabis oil began in a courtroom near Moscow on Friday. Prosecutors argued that Griner put the vape cartridges, which contained a total of 0.7 grams of cannabis oil, into a backpack and a suitcase and intended to import them into the country, according to a report from the Russian state news agency TASS.

Griner’s attorneys, Alexander Boykov and Maria Blagovolina, said that they expect the trial to conclude some time in August. Griner could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison under Russian law, although her legal team hopes that her guilty plea will result in leniency from the court. Boykov noted that samples taken from Griner and subjected to laboratory analysis did not reflect the presence of drugs in her system.

“She was clean, and she was tested,” the attorney said.

In a statement released to the media, Griner’s legal team said that it was the WNBA star’s decision to plead guilty to the charges she faced, adding that the move “sets an example of being brave.”

“She decided to take full responsibility for her actions as she knows that she is a role model for many people,” the statement reads. “Considering the nature of her case, the insignificant amount of the substance and BG’s personality and history of positive contributions to global and Russian sport, the defense hopes that the plea will be considered by the court as a mitigating factor and there will be no severe sentence.”

“We, as her defense, explained to her the possible consequences,” Blagovolina told reporters. “Brittney stressed that she committed the crime out of carelessness, getting ready to board a plane to Russia in a hurry, not intending to break Russian law. We certainly hope this circumstance, in combination with the defence evidence, will be taken into account when passing the sentence, and it will be mild.”

Griner Gets Response from Biden

On Wednesday, the White House revealed that President Joe Biden had received a hand-written letter from Griner pleading with the president to help secure her release from prison in Russia. The administration also noted that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had spoken with Griner’s wife Cherrelle Griner on the telephone and that the president had written a response to Griner’s letter. Cherrelle Griner said after the call that she was “grateful” to receive the phone call from Biden.

“While I will remain concerned and outspoken until (Brittney Griner) is back home, I am hopeful in knowing that the President read my wife’s letter and took the time to respond,” she said. “I know BG will be able to find comfort in knowing she has not been forgotten.”

After Thursday’s hearing, Elizabeth Rood, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, told reporters that she had spoken with Griner in the courtroom and shared the letter of response from Biden.

“She’s eating well, she’s able to read books and under the circumstances she’s doing well,” Rood said of Griner. “I would like again to emphasize the commitment of the U.S. government at the very highest level to bring home safely Ms. Griner and all U.S. citizens wrongfully detained as well as the commitment of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to care for and protect the interests of all U.S. citizens detained or imprisoned in Russia.”

Griner’s next hearing in the trial is scheduled for July 14.

The post Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty to Pot Charges in Russia appeared first on High Times.

The post Brittney Griner Pleads Guilty to Pot Charges in Russia appeared first on Paradise Found.