Russia says Biden’s exaggerating chances of Brittney Griner release to help in the midterms

An aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin has claimed that Joe Biden has over exaggerated the chances of securing Brittney Griner’s release from jail because of the upcoming midterm elections in the US.

Speaking with Russian news agency TASS on Sunday, Yury Ushakov was reported as saying that the US President’s efforts to secure Ms Griner’s release from a jail near Moscow were second to the midterm elections in the US.

“In this tense situation, I think that he is thinking first and foremost about the upcoming midterm elections,” the Kremlin aide was reported as telling TASS per both Axios and Newseek. “So he keeps emphasising the need to bring back home the basketball player who was detained for drug smuggling. However, it’s not the main issue that we are concerned about.”

The remarks by Mr Ushalov, a former Russian ambassador to the US, come ahead of Ms Griner’s appeal being heard in court in Moscow on 25 October. The women’s basketball star will attempt to have her nine-year conviction overturned, according to the Associated Press (AP).

Mr Biden met with Griner’s family last month and signalled his intention on securing the release of both Griner and Paul Whelan, another American imprisoned in the country, who are both considered wrongfully detained.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meanwhile took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner home, along with Mr Whelan, who is currently serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage, the AP reported.

Russia has not yet accepted or put forward a counter proposal. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last week that Mr Biden would not meet with Mr Putin at an upcoming G20 summit of world leaders without a better proposal over the release of Griner and Wheelan.

“The Russians need to take the serious offer that we put forward on the table, or make a serious counter-offer to negotiate, but in good faith,” Ms Jean-Pierre said, per Politico.

Griner, who was arrested in Moscow in February, was sentenced in August. Russian police said they located cannabis oil in vape canisters in her luggage as she tried leaving the country in February via Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.

Lawyers for the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player told the court that the vape canisters were packed in haste and without criminal intent, and that the nine year sentence (of a maximum of 10 years) was excessive in comparison with previous convictions, as the AP reported.

A lawyer for Griner said in a recent interview that “she has not been in as good condition” as normal and that the WNBA star is allowed outside only once a day,The New York Times reported over the weekend.

“She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,” Alexandr D. Boykov said. “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.”

The reports come four weeks ahead of the midterm elections in the US and days after the Biden White House issued a rebuke of Mr Putin’s latest assault on civilian targets in Ukraine last week. The conflict has heightened tensions between the two countries and made negotiations arguably more fraught.