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Brittney Griner Is Increasingly Anxious She May Not Be Freed According To Her Lawyer 

After Russian customs officials found vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in basketball star Brittney Griner’s luggage this past February, she was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

This has led to Griner becoming a valuable asset for the Russians, who are trying to exchange her for arms trafficker Viktor Bout, who is imprisoned in the U.S., in a prisoner swap.

Griner then pleaded guilty to bringing hashish oil into Russia, letting the judge know that she had done so inadvertently while asking the court for mercy. The WNBA star however was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Insiders believe that the guilty plea was a strategy to help facilitate a prisoner swap, something the U.S. have been working on ever since – so far without success.

Griner has now been in a Russian prison for over 250 days, and according to her lawyer, she’s ‘increasingly anxious’ about her chances of being freed in a prisoner swap, which has led to major emotional struggles.

Per New York Times:

“She has not been in as good condition as I could sometimes find her in,” the lawyer, Alexandr D. Boykov, said in a recent interview.

“She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,” Mr. Boykov said, adding that he had spoken to Ms. Griner on Tuesday. “She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.”