Brittney Griner's trial resumes amid intensified diplomacy

WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner speaks with her lawyers at a court room prior to a hearing in the Khimki district court, just outside Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 15, 2022. Griner was arrested in February at the Russian capital's Sheremetyevo Airport when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She has been jailed since then, facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

Since Brittney Griner last appeared in her trial for cannabis possession, the question of her fate has expanded from a tiny, cramped courtroom on Moscow’s outskirts to the highest level of Russia-U.S. diplomacy.

The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist returns to court on Tuesday, a month after the beginning of the trial in which she could face 10 years in prison if convicted. As the trial has progressed, the Biden administration has faced rising calls for action to win her release.

In an extraordinary move, Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction, would go free.