and kimberly barton also said that the negotiating team had been working on this the month. so do we know what got it over the line now? the way house is still not saying what exactly the breakthrough was only that this has been something that has been in the works for some time. the high level negotiations going back 4 months even seemed like there was a bit of a breakthrough, potentially in july only to see that stalled when the white house put forward a proposal. but then it was, it responded to by russia and that response, according to the white house, was not sincere. and so there was once again a stall in those negotiations. what the white house is always maintained is that the punishment did not fit the crime that brittany greiner admitted that when she was detained as a result of her rec arrest in moscow for carrying trace amounts of cannabis oil in her luggage. that the sentence of 9 and a half years in a very hard labor at a penal colony in russia was disproportionate. they feel that she was used as a political pon, given the fact that when she was arrested in febr