WNBA star Brittney Griner was not the only American who was released from a Russian penal colony last month, but she certainly got all the headlines and appeared to get most of the attention from President Joe Biden and the United States government. And that makes American school teacher Sarah Krivanek angry after she was also imprisoned in Russia for a year.
Sarah Krivanek was imprisoned in Russia for a year after she was convicted of a crime she claims she did not commit. And in an interview with ABC News, she blasted the United States government for not doing more to secure her release.
At the same time the Biden administration was releasing the Merchant of Death for Griner, Krivanek was in court being deported.
She says the administration has not reached out since her return. Her message to Biden: "All American citizens should get the same level of service…" pic.twitter.com/GceBGweany— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) December 22, 2022
“I’m angry at the U.S. government.” Krivanek told ABC News. “For leaving me behind to rot. They said, ‘We are working on your case very diligently. Somebody’s going to come out to see you in the colony.’ Nobody ever came.”
Krivanek is especially angry when she compares the United States government’s response to Brittney Griner – securing her freedom by releasing a convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout – to her situation.
“My patriotism and my citizenship to my own country meant absolutely nothing,” Krivanek said. “They might as well have just left me there. They completely throw off the fact that another human being, that another American citizen is also going through, you know, sufferings, with no support.”
Krivanek said that she thinks all Americans should receive the same support from the United States government.
