While the Biden administration has continued to work on the release of basketball star Britney Griner from her imprisonment in Russia, a senior aide to Vladimir Putin said it was not a priority for the Russian president.
The WNBA star was sentenced to a nine-year prison sentence in August, months after she was detained for carrying cannabis oil into the country.
In July, the Biden administration said an offer had been sent to Russia to free Griner and another American imprisoned there, Paul Whelan. Even though it was seen as a "substantial proposal," with some reports saying Russia was offered the release of convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, Putin has not accepted it.
Yury Ushakov, an aide to Putin, said on Sunday that Biden was more concerned about good publicity before the midterm elections than he was about the prisoner exchange.
"In this tense situation, I think that he is thinking first and foremost about the upcoming midterm elections, so he keeps emphasizing 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," Ushakov said in an interview with Rossiya-1.
The G20 summit is coming up, and both Putin and Biden are expected to attend. Biden said last week he has no plans to meet with the Russian president but would if it came to Griner.
"Look, I have no intention of meeting with him," Biden said. "But, for example, if he came to me at the G20 and said, 'I want to talk about the release of Griner,' I would meet with him."
Griner's attorney, Alexandr D. Boykov, shared in an interview with the New York Times last week that the basketball star doesn't think she will be released from her sentence, fearing she will serve it all in Russia.
"She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home," Boykov told the Times. "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."
Griner has appealed the sentencing and is scheduled to reappear in court on Oct. 25.
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