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Also the harshness of the sentence was pretty clearly politically motivated, if a russian guy went in the US and beat someone up breaking a couple bones and exactly after the invasion of Ukraine he gets a life sentence you would call that an unfair and politically motivated sentence
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While I have mixed feelings about the Brittney Griner situation, I also think most people don't know how Russian "laws" work.
The way crimes are prosecuted in Russia isn't always black and white. In some cases, the government is aware that you are breaking the law, but only acts for political (Putin's) gain.
In essence, they use the fact that they know you committed a crime, as an invisible gun to the back of your head that they can fire at any time for any reason.
For example:

Nearly ALL of Russias elites engage in corruption
Corruption is illegal in Russia...like over a decade in prison illegal
The Russian government likely knows who all of the high profile corrupt officals are
They do not immeadietly prosecute corrupt officals when they find out

The point being that whenever Putin feels like it, he can remove an elite and say they were corrupt, and would actually have real evidence. But he isn't going after these people because they re corrupt and he wants to clean up the country...he is doing it for some arbitrary reason that benefits himself.
So on the one hand, it is plausible that if Brittney Griner had drugs on her, she likely did this before, and the Russian's knew about it.
But the fact that they chose to act now, was likely political in nature. They were about to do something that would be condemned internationally, and wanted ammunition to shoot back.
So while yes, Britney Griner broke the law and should be called out on it, that doesn't change the fact that her detention was most likely politically motivated.  And if it was politically motivated, a political solution isn't all that absurd or a sign of "American Privilege" >


So on the one hand, it is plausible that if Brittney Griner had drugs on her, she likely did this before, and the Russian's knew about it.

We can not attest to what likely happened in criminal case circumstances. This argument would not hold anywhere. It is just an assumption. I invite you to argue with the data that is shared with us, instead of conspiracy theories.
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But the fact that they chose to act now, was likely political in nature. They were about to do something that would be condemned internationally, and wanted ammunition to shoot back

We also do not have data to state whether they waited to act or Griner was caught red-handed. Not trusting Russia is a trait you and I both have but conspiracy theories are not arguments.