INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
American basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial in a Russian court Friday amid a historic low point in relations between Washington
and Moscow.The WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist was detained at a Moscow airport in February after security officers
allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.Griner was photographed entering the Khimki City Court outside Moscow
early Friday for the start of her trial.If found guilty on drug smuggling charges, Griner, 31, faces up to 10 years in prison."The United
States Embassy and the country cares very deeply about this case," Elisabeth Rood, deputy chief to the United States Embassy in Moscow,
told reporters outside the court."She asked me to convey that she is in good spirits and she is keeping up faith."Griner's lawyer
Alexander Boikov said she had "no complaints about the conditions of her detention."He added that she is practicing sport "in her cell and
her as wrongfully detained in May and handed oversight of her case over to the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, who is the
principal negotiator for the United States government.Her supporters have called on United States officials to seek her release by way of
a prisoner exchange, as Russian courts rarely hand down acquittals.While efforts to negotiate her release will face the challenge of almost
nonexistent diplomatic ties between Washington and Moscow, the two sides carried out a high-profile prisoner swap in April, exchanging
