American basketball star Brittney Griner has been sent to a penal colony in Russia to serve her sentence for drug possession.
A Russian court rejected an appeal of her nine-year sentence last month.
The eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist was convicted August 4, after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at a Moscow Airport.
Her arrest came at a time of heightened tensions between Moscow and Washington, just days before Russia sent troops into Ukraine, and the politically charged case could lead to a high-stakes prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow.