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US offers Russia deal to release WNBA’s Brittney Griner – The Hollywood Reporter

The US has offered a deal with Russia to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and another American jailed, Paul Whelan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday.

In an earlier policy reversal, Blinken also said he expected to speak with his Kremlin counterpart for the first time since before Russia invaded Ukraine to discuss the deal and other issues. .

Blinken’s comments mark the first time the US government has made public any specific action it has taken to secure the release of Griner, who was arrested on drug-related charges at an airport in New York. Moscow in February and testified Wednesday at her trial. He did not provide details on the proposed deal with the Russians, although a person familiar with the matter said the US government had offered to trade Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Whelan and Griner. .

The person asked to remain anonymous to discuss an ongoing investigation.

While it’s unclear whether the proposal would be enough for Russia to free the Americans, public recognition of the offer at a time when the US has alienated Russia reflects growing pressure on the administration to with Griner and Whelan and their determination to get them. Home page.

It also signals the White House’s growing acceptance of prisoner swaps as resolutions for cases of Americans jailed abroad, especially after the April deal that secured release Marine veteran Trevor Reed and deliver a much-needed public victory for the administration.

“We put an important proposal on the table a few weeks ago to facilitate their release,” Blinken said. “Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly about that proposal, and I will use the chat to follow up personally and, I hope, lead us to a solution.”

President Joe Biden, who authorized the exchange of Reed prisoners after a meeting with his parents, signed off on the agreement the US made in this case, officials said.

“The president and his team are prepared to take extraordinary steps to bring them home,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, told reporters.

If the phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov takes place, it will be the first conversation the two hold since February 15, about a week before Russia invaded Ukraine. US officials said the desire for answers on the prisoner request was the main reason, but not only, but the US on Wednesday requested a new call with Foreign Minister Lavrov.

Blinken said he would also talk to Foreign Minister Lavrov about the importance of Russia complying with the UN-brokered agreement to free tons of Ukrainian grain from storage and warned him of the risks. possible as Russia tries to annex the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.

“There is a utility to conveying clear, direct messages to the Russians about the main priorities for us,” he said, including the launch of Griner and Whelan. They also include “what we’re seeing and hearing around the world is a huge demand for food, in dire need of lower prices.”

Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 on espionage charges. He and his family have strongly asserted his innocence. The US government has denounced these allegations as untrue.

Griner, detained in Russia for the past five months after authorities there said they found her in possession of a vape box containing cannabis oil in her luggage, testified at Wednesday’s court hearing that she no criminal intent to bring them into the country and pack them in a hurry. for her to return to play in a Russian basketball tournament during the WNBA’s season.

In her testimony, celebrity Phoenix Mercury said she still doesn’t know how the cannabis oil got into her luggage but explained that she was recommended by her doctor to use it to deal with the pain. chronic due to his sports injury.

She said she was pulled aside at the airport after inspectors found the ink cartridges, but a language interpreter only translated a small portion of what was said during her and officials’ interrogation. instructed her to sign the documents without providing an explanation.

Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of drug trafficking.

U.S. officials have for months sought to defuse criticism of the apparent lack of momentum in the Griner and Whelan case by saying the work was being conducted in secret and not publicly. That stance makes Wednesday’s announcement all the more surprising, but Kirby said the administration has decided to clarify that an agreement has been made.

“We believe it’s important for the American people to know how hard President Biden worked to bring Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan home,” he said.

For years, Russia has expressed interest in the release of Bout, a Russian arms dealer formerly known as the “Trader of Death” who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on charges of murder. conspiracy to illegally sell millions of dollars in firearms. Advocates of his release argue he was jailed after a US extremist act and the judge who sentenced him told The Associated Press this month she believes he spent enough time in prison.

The U.S. government has long resisted the prisoner swap over concerns that it could encourage more hostage-taking and promote false equivalence between an American wrongly detained and a foreign citizen being held. considered a justifiable conviction. But an earlier agreement in April, in which Reed was exchanged for jailed Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, appeared to open the door to similar resolutions in the future. The Biden administration has also come under political pressure to bring home Griner and other Americans deemed unjustly detained.

There is no indication that Blinken and Lavrov were in contact to secure Reed’s release. Their last public communication was on February 22, when Blinken wrote to Lavrov to cancel a meeting they had planned as a last-ditch effort to stop the Russian invasion, saying Moscow not interested in serious diplomacy on this issue. The State Department later said that Russia’s diplomacy was “Kabuki Drama Theater” – all show and no substance.

The two last met face-to-face in Geneva in January to discuss Russia’s massive military build-up along Ukraine’s border and Russia’s demand for NATO to reduce its presence in Eastern Europe and deny it. permanent membership in Ukraine. The US rejected Russia’s request.

The next two men will be in the same city at the same time next week in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they will both attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum. It remains unclear whether that pre-meeting phone call, set for August 4-5, will hold a face-to-face discussion.

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