In the Moscow jail where WNBA star Brittney Griner has spent the past eight months, there is a basketball hoop, but no basketball. Her lawyers offered to bring her one, but Griner told them not to; it's too painful to think about.
"She said, 'Maybe if I'm here longer, but not now,'" one of her attorneys, Maria Blagovolina, said from Moscow on Wednesday.
Right now, Griner is focused on her upcoming appeal hearing Tuesday in Moscow regional court. Experts say there is no chance the court will overturn her conviction, although it's conceivable the three-judge panel could slightly reduce her nine-year sentence for smuggling cannabis oil into the country.
Griner, who turned 32 on Tuesday, has been in Russian custody since she was arrested Feb. 17 while trying to return to her Russian club team in Yekaterinburg.
Blagovolina declined to speculate on the outcome of next week's appeal, but said it is a "straightforward" affair: one hearing that will last a couple of hours, with a ruling handed down shortly after it concludes. Griner's lawyers may argue that the lower court erred in its verdict or sentence, but they may not introduce new arguments or evidence. Griner will participate via videoconference from her jail and will have a chance to address the judges at the end of the hearing.
Blagovolina and her co-counsel were able to visit Griner on Tuesday, and showed her numerous birthday cards and letters, along with a photo of her wife, Cherelle, meeting with President Joe Biden last month.
Regardless of next week's ruling, Griner will remain at the whim of Russian officials. American U.S. officials have said they haven't received what they consider to be a legitimate response to their offer to swap at least one Russian prisoner for Griner and Paul Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018.
Sources close to Griner say she's resigned to the fact that Russia is unlikely to act until after the U.S. midterm elections Nov. 8, not wanting to give Biden a political win.
Griner's family and American U.S. officials have been concerned that she'll be sent to the prison camp she was sentenced to, where conditions are harsher and she would be far more vulnerable to abuse from inmates and staff. But Blagovolina said even if the appeals court upholds the verdict, Griner is unlikely to be moved anytime soon.
"It's a complicated process [that] can take anywhere from three weeks to three months," she said.
Griner will be allowed to request a location, most likely somewhere close to Moscow, where her lawyers are.
But, as U.S. officials have said repeatedly, Russia can do whatever it likes with Griner and there is little the United States can do about it.