US basketball star Brittney Griner has been sent to a penal colony in Russia to serve her sentence for drug possession, her legal team said.
A Russian court rejected an appeal against her nine-year sentence last month.
The eight-time all-star centre with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medallist was convicted on August 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.
US President Joe Biden said he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to negotiate the release of Griner now that the US midterm elections are over.
Mr Biden said in a news conference on Wednesday that he is “determined to get her home” as well as others.
He said: “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.”
Griner’s legal team said she left a detention centre outside Moscow on November 4 for a penal colony – a common type of Russian prison where detainees work for minimal pay.
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 do not 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 on 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, US secretary of state Antony Blinken insisted that Russian authorities give the embassy regular access to Griner, as they are required to do.
The 32-year-old star athlete, 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 defence team presented written statements that she had been prescribed cannabis to treat pain.
The Associated Press and other news organisations have reported that Washington has offered to exchange Griner and Paul 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 US and once earned the nickname the “merchant of death”.
