Dennis Rodman plans visit to Russia to support Brittney Griner – Reading Eagle

Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star who says he knows Russian President Vladimir Putin well, has revealed his plan to travel to Moscow in support of jailed WNBA star Brittney Griner.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison this month. She was detained at a Moscow airport in February after customs officials said they found canisters of cannabis oil in her luggage.

“I got permission to go to Russia to help this girl,” Rodman said NBC News on Saturday. “I’m trying to go this week.”

The report did not say from whom Rodman, 61, who was born in New Jersey, received the permission, although he only needs the visa to travel to Russia.

Rodman called Putin “cool” in 2014 after a trip to the country, according to NBC News.

In an NBC News report this weekend, he said he “knows Putin too well.” Rodman also has a relationship with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and is reportedly believed to have played a role in the country’s 2014 release of American prisoner Kenneth Bae.

The US State Department urges Americans to refrain from traveling to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February.

During his career that spanned from 1986 to 2000, Rodman won two NBA titles with the Detroit Pistons and three more with the Chicago Bulls. He was twice named the NBA Defensive Player of the Year.

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