Anti-Putin and Harvard Scientist Detained

What the left and viral media trolls get all wrong

By Chuck Warren

On Thursday, anti-Putin activist William Browder tweeted that an anti-Putin Russian and Harvard scientist had been detained at the airport, returning from an international conference, and was facing deportation. Ksenia Petrova fled Russia after protesting the Ukraine War and has been waiting for her asylum hearing.

Browder’s tweet went viral, and everybody concluded that of course this is a sign of Trump’s cruelty on deportation.

Here’s what has actually been happening: Petrova was detained at the airport for trying to smuggle frog embryos into the U.S., which are restricted.

Her lawyer says that it was a paperwork mistake and that she didn’t mean to smuggle anything.

She’s currently in detention waiting for her asylum hearing. Given the circumstances, it is almost certain that if she’s deported, she’ll go to prison in Russia, which means that she’s almost certainly going to be approved for asylum.

The only thing is that she needs to prove that it was an honest paperwork mistake, which is not difficult to prove.

Even if she is denied asylum, she still won’t be deported necessarily. She can always appeal the denial and have a second hearing.

And if she actually did mean to break the law and have her asylum denied because of it, that will be terrible for her. But people who could end up in a Russian prison should really be careful not to set themselves up for something like this.

But the real story here is that there is no story. Everything is happening according to the law. She was not targeted for anything, either. The media and the social media left generated a story out of thin air because of a viral tweet to tell you that Trump is bad.

Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.