after something of a show trial with a pre-determined outcome. the basketball star had been detained in russia since february about, a week before russia invaded ukraine when vape cartridges containing cannabis oil were found in her luggage. now griner s hopes turn to international diplomacy. president biden released a statement today condemning russia s harsh sentence for brittney griner and reiterating his call for her release and that of another detainee paul whelan, the u.s. official tells nbc news that russia has not responded substantively to a quote serious offer that the u.s. made in june for a prisoner swap for the russian arms trafficker viktor bout but officials will keep pushing for her release. this is justice in russia. and another big update of justice for breonna taylor here in america. that is next. in america that is next and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget,
to make a deal with moscow amid tense relations between the two countries over russia s invasion of ukraine. the biden administration proposed this prisoner swap with russia back in june to exchange britney griner and detain american businessman paul whelan for russian arms trafficker viktor bout. but a u.s. official tells nbc news, russia has not responded substantively to that offer demanding that a russian spy jailed in germany for murder be added before they will agree to the exchange. we interpreted that the leaks about that, from the russian side, as just a bad faith attempt to avoid and cloud out and distract everybody, from what is an actually serious proposal that we made. and we made weeks ago, andrea. this isn t something that just popped up. we have been working on this for weeks. and we think this is a bad faith attempt by the russians, knowing that it s not a serious counter offer, just to cloud up the waters, make things money and to avoid having to make
the white house has said it is in discussions with russia to free her and another american citizen who has been detained, paul whelan, and reports suggest this is who the white house is offering excellent exchange viktor bout a russian arms trafficker known as the merchant of death . at the top of her game and facing years in a russian prison, this deal might be her only hope. i love my family. azadeh moshiri, bbc news. this weekend, gustavo petro is due to be sworn in as colombia s first ever leftist president in a country that s seen decades of civil war. nearly six years ago, the revolutionary armed forces of colombia laid down their weapons in a peace deal. and, while violence may have fallen, dissidents and armed gangs have filled the void
the russians necessarily to be prepared to move fast. there is the opportunity for an appeal within ten days by brittney griner s team, and they are suggesting they plan to do that. but we ve discussed before, i mean, it is incredibly unusual for the white house to openly, you know, kind of put on the table the offer they re making. my prediction is that the russians will now view that as a starting point. i don t think they re going to be prepared to do a two-for-one deal, brittney griner and paul whelan for this arms trafficker. i suspect they ll look at the deal with trevor reed, where a drug trafficke was swapped for trevor reed. they ll say, that was one for one. sorry to say it, but i think this is an example where inside the beltway politics, good, probably smart from the white house point of view, inside the beltway politics is not good
some weeks ago after i interviewed dmitry peskov, the kremlin spokesperson and in that interview, i put to him that brittney griner was a hostage. he denied that she was a hostage and quickly segued to say, awe, but our viktor bout, who s in prison in america, this arms trafficker, he is a hostage. and the way that dmitry peskov put those two cases together left me in no doubt, if there was any doubt, that russia would be prepared to do some kind of prisoner swap, possibly with paul whelan, as well. but i think that you ll see them play hardball. and i think this sentence is part of that. i don t think that you can necessarily say that the judge here is kind of doing president putin s bidding, if you like. there is still a legal system in russia, despite the fact that the judge has clearly taken a very tough line. ten years was the maximum sentence, nine years is not very far short of that.