Prisoner swap possible for WNBA star

On the same day WNBA star Brittney Griner appeared in a Russian court – at a scheduling hearing Friday that was moved up by six days and that resulted in another 30 days added to her pretrial detainment – Russia’s state news agency reported U.S. and Russian authorities are discussing a prisoner swap of Griner and convicted arms-smuggler Viktor Bout.

It was unclear whether the two developments – the expedited hearing and the report in TASS – were related. But they came 10 days after the Biden administration officially reclassified Griner’s arrest as a “wrongful detainment,” signaling U.S. officials would ramp up efforts to obtain her release rather than wait for the Russian legal system to play out.