Double Olympic champion Griner was arrested in February at a Moscow airport with cannabis oil in his luggage. In August, she was sentenced to nine years of penal servitude for drug possession.
Now the star has started serving his sentence in a penal colony in Mordvinia, about 35 miles east of Moscow. This after the Russian court in October rejected her appeal.
Griner’s lawyers have visited her:
“Brittney is doing about as well as can be expected and is trying to stay strong while adjusting to her new environment,” the lawyers said in a statement.
The US government has been working for Griner’s release for months. President Joe Biden said last week that he hopes his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may be more open to negotiation now that the US midterm elections are over.
“My hope is that Putin will be more open to discussion with us when the election is over and more willing to talk seriously about a prisoner exchange,” said Biden.
A possible exchange could be for arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States and goes by the nickname “The Merchant of Death.”