Brittney Griner’s sentence puts spotlight back on strained US-Russia relations

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Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving asked the question that so many pondered on Thursday morning: What is happening with Brittney Griner?

On Thursday, a Russian court found the WNBA star guilty of drug charges, months after she was arrested at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil found in her belongings. Griner pleaded guilty to the charges last month but has maintained that it was not her intent to bring an illegal substance into the country.

The U.S. government has maintained that Griner was "wrongfully detained" and has presented the Kremlin with a "substantial proposal" to bring her and American Paul Whelan back home.  

WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, sits inside a defendants' cage after the court's verdict during a hearing in Khimki, outside Moscow, on Aug. 4, 2022. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

On the legal side, her attorneys have said they would appeal the verdict they called "absolutely unreasonable." 

NBA, WNBA CALL BRITTNEY GRINER’S SENTENCING ‘UNJUSTIFIED AND UNFORTUNATE,’ SPORTS WORLD REACTS

But, as tensions between the U.S. and Russia continue to be strained amid conflict in Ukraine, the timeline and likelihood of Griner’s release remain unknown.

"I think we have to acknowledge that a foreign jurisdiction has put its processes to work in managing an admitted guilty defendant," Hugh Dugan, an American academic and longtime diplomat who served as the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs under the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital of the complexities of brokering a deal.

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