There was a lot of fear and uncertainty surrounding Brittney Griner's prison sentence after the WNBA star was moved to a Russian penal colony to serve her nine-year sentence. This was after Russian officials refused to disclose her exact location. At one point, the United States government was unaware of Griner's actual whereabouts, which obviously made the situation quite frightening.
The good news is that Griner's legal team has finally confirmed the 32-year-old's location. According to her lawyers Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boikov, Griner is currently in a town called Yavas, which is roughly 500 km away from the Russian capital of Moscow:
“We can confirm that Brittney began serving her sentence at IK-2 in Mordovia. We visited her early this week,” her lawyers said in a statement, via Filipp Lebedev of Reuters.
“Brittney is doing as well as could be expected and trying to stay strong as she adapts to a new environment.”
It's great that we all now know where Brittney is, and it's even better that her legal team was able to visit her already. However, this does not take away from the fact that the conditions in Russian penal colonies are anything but desirable. Previous reports revealed that grueling labor and psychological torment are what Griner is expected to face in these infamous colonies.
In an earlier statement, the US government confirmed that they already know Griner's whereabouts. However, they are still condoning the actions of the Russian government in terms of handling Griner's transfer:
“We are aware of reports of her location, and in frequent contact with Ms. Griner's legal team,” said a US State Department spokesperson.
“However, the Russian Federation has still failed to provide any official notification for such a move of a U.S. citizen, which we strongly protest.”
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