President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner now that the U.S. midterm elections are over.
“My hope is that now that the election is over, that Mr.
Putin will be able to discuss with us and be willing to talk more seriously
about a prisoner exchange,” Biden told reporters at a news conference.
He spoke hours after Griner’s lawyers revealed that she had
been sent to a penal colony to serve her sentence for drug possession.
U.S. officials have for months tried to negotiate the
release of Griner and another American jailed in Russia, Paul Whelan. But there
have been no overt signs of progress.
A diplomatic resolution has taken on new urgency after a
Russian court rejected an appeal of her nine-year sentence last month. The
eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic
gold medalist was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters
containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
Her arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between
Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and
the politically charged case could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange
between Washington and Moscow.
“Every minute that Brittney Griner must endure wrongful
detention in Russia is a minute too long,” White House Press Secretary Karine
Jean-Pierre said. “As we have said before, the U.S. Government made a
significant offer to the Russians to resolve the current unacceptable and
wrongful detentions of American citizens.”
Griner’s legal team said she left a detention center outside
Moscow on Nov. 4 for a penal colony — as prisons in Russia are commonly known.
The move was expected since she lost her appeal.
Such transfers can take days or even weeks, during which
time lawyers and loved ones usually don’t have contact with the prisoner. Even
after she arrives, access to Griner may be difficult since many penal colonies
are in remote parts of Russia.
Her lawyers said Wednesday that they did not know exactly
where she was or where she would end up — but that they expected to be notified
when she reached her final destination.
In a statement stressing the work being done to secure
Griner’s release, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that Russian
authorities give the embassy regular access to Griner, as they are required to
do. Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow visited Griner last week.
A senior State Department official, who spoke to reporters
on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case, said the Russians
had not notified American diplomats of Griner’s transfer ahead of time and had
not yet responded to queries from the American embassy about either her current
whereabouts or ultimate destination.
In many penal colonies, prisoners work for minimal pay, and
dissidents and other countries have denounced the conditions of those held.
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny went on a hunger strike to
protest his treatment, including officials’ refusal to give him the right
medicines and to allow his doctor to visit him behind bars.
He also protested the hourly checks a guard makes on him at
night, saying they amount to sleep deprivation torture.
Griner, 32, who was detained while returning to play for a
Russian team during the WNBA’s offseason, has admitted that she had the
canisters in her luggage. But she testified that she had inadvertently packed
them in haste and that she had no criminal intent. Her defense team presented
written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
The Associated Press and other news organizations have
reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Whelan — an
American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage — for Viktor Bout.
Bout is a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and
once earned the nickname the “merchant of death.”
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