President Joe Biden said U.S. efforts to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner are ongoing but have not swayed the Kremlin, hours after a Russian court rejected her appeal of a nine-year drug smuggling sentence.
“We are in constant contact with Russian authorities to get Brittney and others out, and so far we’re not meeting with much positive response,” Biden told reporters Tuesday at the White House. “But we’re not stopping.”
Earlier in the day, the White House called the court’s decision a “sham” and again demanded her release. The ruling means Griner will leave a pre-trial detention facility near Moscow and be sent to serve her term in a penal colony elsewhere in Russia.
