She arrived in court handcuffed, wearing a t-shirt bearing the image of American musician Jimi Hendrix.
Brittney Griner, American women's basketball star, will be tried in Russia for drug trafficking.
But the story especially feels the diplomatic blow, while the relations between Moscow and Washington are very degraded, because of the war in Ukraine.
The Phoenix Mercury player came to Russia in February to play there during the American off-season, a common practice for basketball players who sometimes earn more abroad than at home.
It was upon her arrival at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport that the double Olympic gold medalist with the United States (2016, 2020) was arrested in possession, according to the accusation, of vapers and liquid to cannabis base.
She faces up to 10 years in prison.
In view of Russian case law in similar cases, the young woman can expect a heavy sentence, to be served in a Russian penal colony.
The case has not made much noise so far.
The trial opened in private session, with a limited presence of the media in the courtroom, at the "request of the defense, at the request of Griner herself", indicates Polina Vdovtsova, the door- word of the court in Khimki, a town on the outskirts of Moscow.
And US authorities kept a low profile until March 5, before senior officials in Washington said Russia was "unfairly" detaining the 31-year-old 2m03 star.
Exchanges of nationals
His case is in the hands of the United States special envoy for those taken hostages.
Americans and Russians accuse each other of detaining their respective nationals for political purposes.
Several prisoner exchanges have taken place in the past.
In April, former US Marine Trevor Reed, sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia for violence, was exchanged for a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, imprisoned in the United States since 2010 for drug trafficking.
Other exchanges of this type would be the subject of talks.
Among the names most mentioned are that of Paul Whelan, an American sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage and who claims his innocence, and the famous Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, arrested in Thailand in 2008 and who is serving a sentence of 25 years in prison in the United States.
A case similar to that of Brittney Griner resulted in a diplomatic agreement between Moscow and Israel.
In January 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned Israeli-American Naama Issachar, imprisoned in Russia for "drug trafficking" for nine grams of cannabis found in her luggage during a correspondence in Moscow, on the occasion of a meeting in Moscow with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had left with the young woman.
No consideration in favor of Russia had then been announced.
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