Brittney Griner taken to remote, all-female Russian penal colony to serve 9-year sentence: report

• Brittney Griner was moved to a penal colony in Mordovia, Russia, Reuters reported.
• The WNBA star was sentenced to 9 years in August on drugs charges in a case the US says is unjust.

WNBA star Brittney Griner was moved to a women's penal colony in the western Russian region of Mordovia, according to Reuters.

A source familiar with the situation told the outlet that she has been moved to Female Penal Colony IK-2 in Yavas, a small town about 300 miles southeast of Moscow. The news comes after two weeks of silence from Russian authorities on her whereabouts.

On November 4 — just one day after she had convened with American officials — she was moved without warning from a detention center near Moscow to an unknown location.

"We do not have any information on her exact current location or her final destination," her attorneys told Insider in a statement. "In accordance with the standard Russian procedure, the attorneys, as well as the US Embassy, should be notified upon her arrival at her destination."

"Notification is given via official mail and normally takes up to two weeks to be received," they added.

Because Russian penal colonies are known for their poor conditions, Griner's lawyers appealed her initial conviction partially in an attempt to avoid the 6-foot-9 American serving time at the remnants of a Gulag labor camp. When news of her transfer — to a then-unknown location — emerged shortly after Griner's appeal was rejected, her agent expressed concerns for her physical and mental health.

"Our primary concern continues to be BG's health and well-being," a statement from Lindsay Colas provided to Insider said at the time. "As we work through this very difficult phase of not knowing exactly where BG is or how she is doing, we ask for the public's support in continuing to write letters and express their love and care for her."

The WNBA superstar was first arrested in February, when customs agents at a Moscow airport found cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. Six months later, she was convicted of drug smuggling with criminal intent despite her pleas for leniency and insistence that her crime was unintentional.

The US State Department has classified Griner as "wrongfully detained," which sends a "strong signal that the US government does not believe that there is a legitimate case against her," as an expert previously told Insider. Even still, plenty of Americans have been vocal about the fact that they don't want the two-time Olympic gold medalist to come home.

Griner's most promising pathway out of foreign custody involves a prisoner exchange between the White House and the Kremlin. Though the US has reportedly offered to swap notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for the return of Griner and fellow American Paul Whelan, American government officials maintain that they have yet to receive a serious counteroffer out of Moscow.