Russia detained US basketball star Brittney Griner more than a month ago. Why have we heard so little about her?

One of the US’s top athletes has been detained in Russia for almost a month. You would think that would be an enormous story, right? I mean, a celebrity caught sneezing is considered newsworthy (the actor Jennifer Garner, in case you missed it).

Wrong. Coverage of the detention of Brittney Griner, a star player in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and a two-time Olympic champion, was sparse until very recently so sparse that there is a good chance this is the first time you are hearing about it. If so, here is the background: on 17 February, Griner, who plays for the Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg during the WNBA offseason, was arrested at an airport near Moscow. The 31-year-old was accused by Russian customs authorities of having vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison. That would be a nightmare for anyone, but it doesn’t help that Griner is black and openly gay. Russia, I don’t need to tell you, is hardly an LGBTQ+ paradise.

There has been a lot of outrage on social media about the fact that Griner’s detention hasn’t been bigger news. Some of that online outrage (shockingly!) is misplaced. The people firing off indignant tweets along the lines of “WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT BRITTNEY?” could have answered their own question if they had done five minutes of Googling. The Washington Post, for example, reports that people familiar with the case have explained that Griner’s arrest has been kept quiet deliberately because of worries that high-profile coverage could make her more valuable to Russia and jeopardise her release.

If that is the case, why am I writing about Griner? Well, because the keep-it-quiet strategy hasn’t worked and US lawmakers are now