She should be left there to rot in prison. She knew what she was doing and then compounded her crime by lying to get out of it. Fortunately Russia is not like the US has become in recent years with criminals left on the loose and running wild. They do not tolerate and even encourage criminal behavior as we do. To give up a big time Russian thug for her is just plain crazy, like paying a million dollars for a handful of peanuts.

She'll have a great opportunity to add to her collection of tattoos. Russian prisoners have the most incredible tattoos. Decoding Russian criminal tattoos – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian

On the bright side, she gets to learn a new language.

Da! Vy ga-va-ree-tye pa-rus-kee? Do you speak Russian? in Russian - How to Say - Examples and Audio

My favorite statement so far is that the "Russians do not tolerate and even encourage criminals like we do". Really

This is the country that invaded Ukraine, is killing innocent citizens on a daily basis and is committing war crimes as a result.

They hunt down and try to kill, and do kill, dissidents no matter where they are in the world.

This is a kangaroo court that results in conviction over 99% of the time. The same "legal" system also locked Paul Whelan for 16 years for "espionage". Pure nonsense.

So I guess everybody is OK with the Whelan conviction also. So let's here all the Griner haters tell us true justice was done for Whelan. Or is the Russian system only correct when the convicted person is an African American professional basketball who won two gold medals for the US in the Olympics?

He would seem to encourage kangaroo courts working for his benefit which is pretty much what we have here in this situation.

The punishment hardly warrants the "crime".

I can't wait to see her prison tattoos and hear what her Russian speech will sound like. Moscow, St. Petersburg or some kind of hardcore criminal rough talk?

Is it no longer illegal to transport it through US Airports? How did she get to Russia?

Is she wrong -- both literally and figuratively -- yeah. She brought something into a sovereign nation that is prohibited. Even if it was only a wee bit (cartridge), and legal in a province or state, and it wasn't even all that good -- ditch weed, it was still not allowed.

What if you go to the airport tomorrow, forget that you have a 22 derringer in your overnight bag, but you have a concealed permit in FL and UT (UT honors dozens of state with reciprocity agreements). The TSA finds the gun. You go, dang, I didn't mean to have it. It is legal in Florida, and I can carry it in 30 other states. Does the TSA go, yep, I can see it is a tiny amount of a gun, and you really didn't mean to have it. Go ahead, brah, no problem.

What if you have a few brews at World of Beer. You begin to sober up. but need more time. You get into your golf cart, and turn it on to hear some rad tunes. You slump over and fall asleep. Minutes later, Wildwood or Lady Lake's finest approaches you, wakes you up, and asks you to turn the ignition off. You say, brah, I'm resting it off -- I knew my limits and didn't drive home. He asks you to perform some tests and you say you didn't drive it. He informs you that you cannot have the key in the ignition of a motor vehicle when intoxicated. You say, I'm knot Toxinacated and I knowed my Writes." He responds, oh, that clears things up, go ahead, and be safe citizen.

Does the lady's transgression in Russia warrant 9 years -- of course not. Russia is an A-whole country. We are in a proxy war with them. Did you think they wouldn't turn the screws on us, as we are turning it on them.

Would a young black women, whose father works at Publix bagging groceries, who saved up to send his little girl to UCF to study language, who then travels to Russia on a school trip, but has a wee bit of weed oil in a cartridge get all the presidential, political, and media focus that the basketball woman gets? I'll answer that, freakin NO!

It is not even a racial, or sexual orientation thing, it is just a fame thing.

We are all equal, all of us.

Swift and decisive justice is the best kind.

her mistake was disrespecting this country. 9 years is not enough.

First thing, you don't go to another country that has an extreme dislike for our country and get caught doing something that violates their law. You will become a pawn in an international political power play that has no rules. Remember Otto Warmbier who was convicted by a North Korean court for stealing a political banner? He was another pawn in an international power play and he paid for it with his life. Doing stupid things in the wrong places can be fatal!

When you leave our country your constitutional rights end at our border. You are subject to that other country's laws whether they are fair, draconian or very permissive. In some countries she could face the death penalty or a very lengthy prison sentence. We can scream, kick and holler that the punishment is far more severe than what she would face in the U.S. but that argument is totally irrelevant. Those punishments are what their laws dictate.

My opinion about her punishment is that it is far too severe. Nine years in a Russian prison would be Hell. I do not agree to the swap that has been proposed, that man should never see the light of day again.

Our laws mean nothing in other countries and she should have known better. Although I don't like her behavior, nine years seems extreme. I feel bad for her family...

God forbid, "disrespecting" Russia!!

Obviously satire, nobody could possibly be serious about such a stupid statement!

A full 9 years!

You realize you live in a glass house, right?

Some of our operations in Afghanistan are difficult to defend and we recently celebrated locating and killing someone in another country after 20+ years of searching.

I don't care what color, sex, or skills they have, it was a mistake to carry an illegal substance into a foreign country. We wouldn't excuse a foreigner breaking our laws and we shouldn't expect a foreign country to excuse an American breaking their laws, female black Olympian or not.

Of course, she should not be made an example of simply because she is American but it looks like that is what is happening. *That* we can agree is not right.