Russia will discuss Brittney Griner prisoner swap with US ‘without publicity’
- Moscow emphasised that any discussions on a possible trade should be held via the confidential channels Putin and Biden agreed to last year
- The athlete may be swapped for a notorious arms trader known as the‘Merchant of Death’ who is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiracy to kill US citizens
The Kremlin said on Friday that it’s open to talking about a possible prisoner exchange involving American basketball star Brittney Griner but strongly warned Washington against publicising the issue.
Griner, a two-time US Olympic champion and an eight-time all-star with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, has been detained in Russia since February 17 after police at Moscow’s airport said they found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
A judge convicted the 31-year-old athlete on Thursday of drug possession and smuggling, and sentenced her to nine years in prison. The politically charged case comes amid high tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s military action in Ukraine.
In an extraordinary move, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last week to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, would go free.
Lavrov and Blinken were both in Cambodia on Friday for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Blinken did not even glance at his Russian counterpart as they took their seats at an East Asia Summit.