Brittney Griner seemingly knew her fate in Russian court, calling her final hearing 'doomsday,' her lawyer said

• Brittney Griner's lawyer said she called Thursday's sentencing hearing "doomsday."
• "When we saw Brittney on Tuesday, we told her, 'See you on Thursday.' She said, 'See you on doomsday,'" Maria Blagovolina told Reuters.

Brittney Griner appeared to know her fate in Russian court, calling Thursday's hearing and sentencing "doomsday" when she spoke to her lawyer earlier in the week, her attorney said.

"When we saw Brittney on Tuesday, we told her, 'See you on Thursday'," Griner's lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, told Reuters.

The WNBA superstar and two-time Olympic gold medalist responded, "See you on doomsday,'" Blagovolina told Reuters.

"So it looks like she was right," the lawyer added in her retelling, referring to the guilty verdict and nine-year prison sentence handed down to Griner on Thursday.

Griner has been held in Russian custody since February when she was detained at a Moscow airport after officials found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. Her trial — which began four months after her initial arrest — came to a close Thursday, when a judge ruled she had "criminal intent" in bringing cannabis to Russia.

Griner had previously pleaded guilty to the charges against her as part of her legal team's appeals for leniency. But earlier on Thursday, prosecutors recommended a nine-and-a-half-year sentence for Griner, marking just a six-month reduction from the maximum possible sentence.

President Biden slammed the ruling and called on Russia to release Griner almost immediately after the 31-year-old received her sentence. Biden promised that his "administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and [fellow detained American] Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible" in his statement, seemingly alluding to a possible prisoner exchange that made headlines last week.

The White House seemingly confirmed that it had offered to swap a convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout, in exchange for the early release of both Griner and Whelan, a former US Marine convicted on charges of espionage.

Russia has yet to formally respond to the administration's offer, but suggested that it would be interested in the swap if the US helps to free an additional convict — a Russian national who was tried, sentenced, and imprisoned for murder in Germany.

But a senior White House official slammed that counter as "a bad faith attempt to avoid a very serious offer and proposal that the United States has put forward." Moscow officials fired back that "loudspeaker diplomacy" wouldn't succeed in bringing the detained Americans home, signaling that the US and Russia were still quite far from agreeing to a deal.

Even still, all eyes are on Biden to secure Griner's and Whelan's freedom — especially now that the eight-time WNBA All-Star officially faces the prospect of spending nearly a decade at a penal colony.