Brittney Griner Shares Disturbing Account of Russian Cellmate

WNBA player Brittney Griner has opened up about her time spent in a Russian prison, and it sounds like it may have been even more disturbing than you would expect a Russian prison would be.

Which is saying something.

Griner was, of course, detained by the Russians after spending her offseason there when she was caught with vape cartridges that contained cannabis. Eventually, she was released as part of a controversial prisoner swap in which the Biden administration released arms dealer Viktor Bout, AKA "The Merchant of Death," with many arguing that while it's was of course good to bring back an American citizen like Griner, the deal was a little lopsided as far as the potential to re-offend. 

And, yes, Bout is back in the arms-dealing business…

But now, Griner is opening up about what life was like in Russian custody, and she told one disturbing story to ex-NFL MVP Cam Newton on his Funky Friday podcast.

The WNBA star who currently plays for the Atlanta Dream said that while most of the other inmates were there for murder or drug dealing, she had a cellmate who committed a despicable crime.

"I had a cellmate in the very beginning. I thought something was off with her. She acted like a child, but she was a grown woman, but she very much acted like an adolescent child," Griner said. "And then she had burn marks all over herself, and I found out after the fact that she was selling videos online of her husband and her child together."

It's no secret that people who committed crimes as heinous as the one Griner is describing are often targeted by other inmates, and according to Griner, this was the case in Russia as well.

She revealed that the burn marks on this other inmate had been inflicted by other inmates.

"There’s not a lot of torturing from inmates with girls on the women’s side. But if you're in there for something like that, yeah, you're going to get tortured. And they would put their cigarettes out on her and make her sleep at the door, too."

As I said, I think we all knew Russian prisons were rough, but this is another level.