The difficulties involved in freeing Brittney Griner from her imprisonment in Russia were brought into stark relief this weekend when a senior aide to Vladimir Putin said the issue is not a priority for the Russian president.
In August, the basketball star was given a nine-year prison sentence for bringing a small amount of cannabis oil into Russia.
The 31-year-old said she uses the drug to treat pain and has lodged an appeal against her sentence. Joe Biden’s administration said in July that it had made a “substantial proposal” to bring home Griner and Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in Russia.
The administration has not provided specifics about its proposal, but according to multiple reports, it had offered to release Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the US.