This is just horrific news for Brittney Griner.
The Olympic champion is currently serving a nine-year sentence on drug charges and it looks like she might have to ride that entire sentence out based on comments coming out of Russia.
A Russian official said on Sunday that the detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner isn’t a priority for the Kremlin despite President Biden repeatedly pushing for her release.
“In this tense situation, I think that he (Biden) is thinking first and foremost about the upcoming midterm elections,” Yury Ushakov, a close aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, told the state-run TV program “Moscow.Kremlin.Putin.”, according to USA Today.
“He keeps emphasizing the need to bring (Griner) back home … however, it’s not the main issue that we are concerned about.”
These comments come after Griner’s wife, Cherelle, said in an interview last week she is terrified that her partner won’t ever return home.
The 31-year-old basketball star has been detained in Russia since February. The seven-time WNBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist was handed down a nine-year prison sentence by a Russian court after pleading guilty to the charges against her.
President Biden said last week that he had no intention of meeting Putin at an upcoming Group of 20 summit, but would consider it if the Russian leader wanted to discuss Griner’s release.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral WNBA stories via Google! Follow Us
The White House said earlier this month that there has been no progress in negotiations with Russian officials because they are not getting any responses back from them in a possible prisoner trade.
Biden said last week that he doesn’t intend to speak with Putin during the upcoming G20 summit, unless it’s concerning Griner’s release.
“Look, I have no intention of meeting with him,” said Biden. “But, for example, if he came to me at the G20 and said, ‘I want to talk about the release of Griner,’ I would meet with him.”
