WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony J. Brinken met on Friday with Russian Secretary of State Sergey V. Lavrov to urge him to accept the offer to release Britney Griner and Paul N. Whelan, but reported no progress. did.
Brinken said at a press conference that he had spoken on the phone with a Russian partner, the first conversation a few weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. He declined to say how Mr Lavrov reacted.
“I urged Foreign Minister Lavrov to proceed with the proposal,” he said. “I’m not going to characterize his reaction, and I can’t give you an assessment of whether things are more or less likely.”
of that account Russia’s foreign ministry said in the call that Lavrov suggested returning to procedures of “quiet diplomacy” without a “speculative intelligence campaign” when speaking about a possible exchange of imprisoned citizens. Stated.
WNBA star Greener, who played for the Russian team during the off-season, has been tried in a Russian court and faces up to 10 years in prison for drugs. A 31-year-old athlete was detained at an airport in Moscow after customs officers found hash oil in her luggage about a week before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Former Marine and corporate security executive Whelan was detained in 2018 at a hotel in Moscow where he was staying for a friend’s wedding. In 2020, a Russian court sentenced him to 16 years in prison for espionage denying him and his family.
The State Department classified both Whelan and Griner as “wrongfully detained.”
The Biden administration last month gave Russian arms dealer Victor Bout a 25-year federal sentence in the United States, Grinner and Weeran, according to people briefed on the matter. Proposed to exchange with.
Brinken also said he pressured Lavrov to get his way on the recent Russian agreement to allow the passage of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports, saying the world would never accept further Russian annexation of Ukrainian territories. I told him no.
He warned Mr. Lavrov against a “fake referendum” intended to “misrepresent that people in these parts of Ukraine are somehow trying to become part of Russia.”
“If Russia puts this plan into action, it would impose a large additional cost,” Blinken said.
Lavrov said the grain situation was “complicated by US sanctions,” according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. He also said that the Russian military “strictly adheres to the norms of international law.”
He added that Russia’s purpose in Ukraine is “fully achieved.”
