The Kremlin said on Friday it is open to discussing a possible prisoner swap involving US basketball star Brittney Griner, but strongly warned Washington against making the issue public.
Griner, a two-time U.S. Olympic champion and eight-time star with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17 after Moscow airport police said they found vaporizer cartridges containing oil of cannabis in your luggage.
A judge convicted the 31-year-old athlete on Thursday of drug possession and drug trafficking 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.
Asked at the White House on Friday about the prospects of securing Griner’s release, President Joe Biden said: “I am hopeful … We are working hard.”
In an extraordinary move, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and urged him to accept a deal in which Griner and Paul Whelan, a American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, will be released.
LOOK | Griner sentenced to 9 years in prison:
Basketball star Brittney Griner sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison on drug charges
WNBA star Brittney Griner has been sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison for drug possession and drug trafficking, a politically charged move denounced by US President Joe Biden.
Lavrov and Blinken were both in Cambodia on Friday for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Blinken didn’t even look at his Russian counterpart as they took their seats at an East Asian summit.
Lavrov told reporters that Blinken did not try to contact him while they were attending the ASEAN meeting.
“We were only separated by one person at the discussion table, but I didn’t feel his desire to catch me. My buttons are all in place,” he said when asked about Washington’s statement that Blinken would try to hook Lavrov for a quick bit. interaction in Phnom Penh.
Lavrov said Moscow was “ready to discuss” a prisoner exchange, but that the issue should only be discussed through a dedicated channel between Russia and the United States that Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to set when they met in Geneva in June 2021.
“If the Americans again try to engage in public diplomacy and make loud statements about their intention to take certain measures, it is their business, I would even say that they are their problem,” Lavrov said. “Americans often have trouble observing quiet, professional work arrangements.”
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the same point more harshly, saying that “the US has already made a mistake, trying to solve these problems through ‘microphone diplomacy’.” They don’t get resolved that way.”
He also stressed that any discussion of potential trade would have to take place through the previously established confidential channels agreed upon by Putin and Biden during last year’s summit.
“These mechanisms exist, but they will be called into question if the discussion continues in the public domain,” Peskov said. He said: “If we talk about any nuance related to the issue of exchange through the media, no exchange will ever happen.”
LOOK | Griner makes the final plea:
Brittney Griner addresses the judge in the Russian courtroom
Olympic gold medalist and WNBA star Brittney Griner asked the Russian judge overseeing her trial not to “end her life” with a long prison sentence, saying she hoped the politics between Russia and the United States did not take into account the sentence. When heard from the courtroom in handcuffs, Griner said, “I love my family.”
Highest level contact since the invasion of Ukraine
People familiar with the U.S. proposal have said it plans to trade Griner and Whelan for a notorious Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout. He is serving a 25-year sentence in the US after being convicted of conspiracy to kill US citizens and aiding a terrorist organisation.
The call between Blinken and Lavrov marked the highest-level contact known between Washington and Moscow since Russia sent troops to Ukraine more than five months ago, underscoring the public pressure the White House has faced to get the release of Griner.
Griner was arrested as she was returning to play with a team in Russia, where she has competed since 2014. Blinken said Friday that her conviction and sentence “compounds the injustice that has been done to her.”
“It shines a spotlight on our very important concern about Russia’s legal system and the Russian government’s use of unlawful detentions to advance its own agenda by using people as political pawns,” he said.
On Thursday, Biden denounced the Russian judge’s verdict and sentence as “unacceptable” and said he would continue to work to bring Griner and Whelan home.