The center of the Phoenix Mercury and two-time US Olympic gold medalist was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport after police said they were carrying canisters of hemp oil. He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale drug trafficking. Greiner, 31, was taken to a courtroom in the Khimki district of Moscow while wearing handcuffs and a Jimmy Hendrix T-shirt. At a closed-door preliminary hearing on Monday, her detention was extended for another six months, until December 20, and her next court hearing was set for July 7. Less than 1% of those charged in Russian criminal cases are acquitted, and unlike the US, acquittals can be overturned. Her case is at an extremely low point in Moscow-Washington relations. Greiner was arrested less than a week before Russia sent troops to Ukraine, which has exacerbated already high tensions between the two countries. The United States then imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow, and Russia accused the United States of sending weapons to Ukraine. Elizabeth Rudd, the US envoy to Moscow, was in court and said she had spoken to Greener, who “is doing as well as can be expected in these difficult circumstances”. “The Russian Federation has unjustly detained Brittney Griner,” Rood said. “The practice of illegal detention is unacceptable wherever it occurs and poses a threat to the safety of all who travel, work and live abroad.” He said the US government, at its highest level, was “working hard to bring Brittney and all the unjustly detained US nationals home safely”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peshkov denied on Friday that politics played a role in Greener’s detention and prosecution. “The facts are that the famous athlete was detained in possession of illicit drugs containing narcotics,” Peshkov told reporters. “Given what I said, he cannot be politically motivated,” he added. Griner’s supporters had kept a low profile in hopes of a peaceful solution until May, when the State Department re-accused her of being an illegal detainee and commissioned a special envoy for the US government to hold hostages. . Greiner’s wife, Serel, urged President Joe Biden to secure her release, calling her a “political pawn.” “It was good to see her in some of these pictures, but it’s difficult. “Every time it is a reminder that their teammate, their friend, is unjustly imprisoned in another country,” Phoenix Mercury coach Vanessa Nygard said on Monday. The coach hoped that Biden “would take steps to ensure that he would return home”. Griner supporters have encouraged an exchange of prisoners such as the one in April that brought home veteran Marine Trevor Reed in exchange for a Russian pilot convicted of drug trafficking. Russian media have repeatedly speculated that they could trade her for Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, nicknamed the “Death Dealer”, who is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiracy to murder and kidnap US citizens. assistance to a terrorist organization. Russia has been rocked by Bout’s release for years. However, the huge discrepancy between the Griner case – which involves the alleged possession of cannabis-containing steam cartridges – and Bout’s global trade in deadly weapons could make such an exchange unpleasant for the United States. Others have suggested he could be traded with Paul Whelan, a former Marine and security director who is serving a 16-year sentence for espionage that the United States has repeatedly described as an organization. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, when asked on CNN on Sunday whether the joint exchange of Griner and Whelan for Bout is being considered, sidestepped the question. “As a general proposition … I have no greater priority than to ensure that Americans who are illegally detained in one way or another around the world return to their homes,” he said. But he said he could not comment “in any detail on what we are doing, except to say that this is an absolute priority”.
