U.S. AND RUSSIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS GRINER AND WHELAN’S RELEASE

Mon 28 November 2022:

The United States and Russia are negotiating the release of basketball player Brittney Griner and former marine Paul Whelan through special channels, according to a senior U.S. diplomat quoted by RIA Novosti on Monday,

According to Elizabeth Rood, charge d’affaires of the American embassy in Moscow, although the United States had made a serious proposal for consideration to Russia, it had not yet gotten a “serious response.”

Russia and the United States have been discussing a deal that could see Griner, who is facing nine years in jail in Russia on drug charges, return to the United States in exchange for convicted Russian weapons trafficker Viktor Bout.

No deal has materialised amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

Russian officials jailed Griner in February when authorities arrested her at a Moscow airport after finding a small amount of cannabis oil in her luggage.

A court convicted Griner in August of trying to smuggle narcotics. She received a nine-year sentence, which an appeals court upheld last month.

The families of Whelan, who Russia has held for alleged espionage since 2018, and WNBA star Griner, jailed in Moscow for drug possession since February, have urged the White House to secure their release, including via a prisoner exchange, if necessary, the report stated.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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