Detention of WNBA's Griner in Moscow extended for 1 month

[keopeli]

1. As a US citizen who lived in Moscow in the 90s, please, do NOT go to Russia!

Why any citizen of a Western Nation, especially the US, would travel to Russia for any reason beggars belief. It's right up there with why any American would go to North Korea. You are simply asking to be used as a pawn by the dictator.

I moved to Moscow in 1991, before the Soviet Union collapsed. I was 24 years old. Because of Gorbachov, Perestroika, Glasnost, and the fall of the Berlin Wall, I felt it would not be a risk. I was wrong, of course. I was scrutinized, observed, followed, had state agents undercover befriend me, and many more terrifying ordeals. I watched the coup of August 1991, I watched the Soviet Flag lowered forever over the Kremlin in December 1991.

It was a combination of luck and the failed state that existed at the time that I escaped relatively unscathed.

Even if you have family in Russia, even if you are vacationing with a Russian travel agent, there is not a good reason to go there today or for the next several years.

I give this warning from time to time in the hope that one day I may actually dissuade someone who would otherwise go. You are putting your life in the hands of Putin.