Brittney Griner’s nine-year sentence in a Russian penal colony, which we admit, conjures up some frightening images and memories A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The short novel is set in a Soviet labor camp and describes the prisoner’s struggle for human dignity.

Judging by the brief images of the six-foot-tall WNBA superstar being escorted to her court appearances in Moscow, the last one ended with the Draconian nine years imprisonment over less than a gram of cannabis oil, Griner seems to have her human dignity intact.

What about the billionaire owners of the Griner Russian basketball team?

Dignity doesn’t come to mind when you consider the inaction of the Russian oligarchs, who have remained silent or pressured their friend Vladimir Putin, whom we know of, to give the 31-year-old basketball player a break and let her walk free.

ask why? This might shed some light

The team that Griner has played on for the past seven years is this UMMC Yekaterinburg is controlled by Russian billionaires Iskander Makhmudov and his business partner, Andrei Kositsyn. The two men also run the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, one of Russia’s largest producers of copper, zinc, coal, gold and silver.

Proceeds from mining helped Makhmudov and Kozitsyn invest in women’s basketball and other sports in Russia, such as martial arts, hockey, motorcycle racing, table tennis, etc.

The invasion that changed everything

The day Russia invaded Ukraine Putin summoned at least 13 of the country’s wealthiest businessmen – the oligarchs who emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union and began acquiring stakes in key industries such as gas, oil and precious metals.

The purpose of the meeting other than telling them the invasion was a “necessary measure” was letting his friends know (as if they hadn’t already) that they were likely to face US and European economic sanctions…