New Delhi: The Joe Biden-led US administration has proposed a “substantial offer” to Russia to bring home two Americans — basketball star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan — in Russian custody.
While the administration has not given details of the offer so far, a CNN report said the US could be ready to send back Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the country, as part of a prisoner swap.
The reported proposal comes at a time when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is preparing to speak to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov “in the coming days”. This will be the first call between the two since Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year.
Blinken and Lavrov are expected to discuss various issues, among them the detention of Griner and Whelan, and the UN-brokered deal between Moscow and Kyiv to resume Ukrainian grain exports.
Addressing reporters at the US Department of State, Blinken confirmed Wednesday that efforts to bring back Griner and Whelan will be among the issues he discusses with Lavrov.
“When it comes to our efforts to secure the return of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, my hope would be that by speaking to foreign minister Lavrov, I can advance the efforts to bring them [Griner and Whelan] home,” Blinken said at the press conference.
He added that, in such cases, US President Joe Biden is not afraid to make “tough decisions”.
“We’ve demonstrated with Trevor Reed, who came home a few months ago, that the President is prepared to make tough decisions if it means the safe return of Americans,” said Blinken.
Reed, a US citizen and former Marine who had been in detention in Russia since 2019 for alleged violence against a Russian police officer, returned home late April this year. A court in Russia had sentenced Reed to nine years in prison in July 2020.
His release was part of a prisoner swap involving Konstantin Yaroshenko, a former Russian pilot who had been imprisoned in the US on drug smuggling charges and sentenced to 20 years in jail in April 2011.
Over the past two years, there have been reports of other possible high-profile prisoner swaps between countries sharing tense relations.
In September 2021, Canada released senior Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, held on fraud allegations on US’ request, while two Canadians — diplomat Michael Kovrig and entrepreneur Michael Spavor, jailed in China on charges of spying — were set free by Beijing for “unexplained medical reasons”.
Meng had been fighting extradition to the US in a British Columbia court, which led to speculation about the role the US might have played in finalising the deal.
However, shortly after Meng’s release, the White House said there was “no link” between its decision to drop the extradition request against Meng and the release of the two Canadians.
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Who are Griner, Whelan and Bout
While Griner is still undergoing trial proceedings in Russia, Whelan and Bout are serving time in Russia and the US, respectively.
Griner, 31, is a celebrated American basketball player who has been named an All-Star player — top performer — seven times by the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA).
She was detained on 17 February at an airport in Moscow after Russian customs officers allegedly found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The two-time Olympic gold medallist later reportedly pled guilty.
Her detention led to an international outcry with the White House saying in July that it believed Griner had been “wrongfully detained”. Griner’s next hearing is slated for early August.
Whelan, 52, is a former Marine who was arrested in Russia in 2018 on espionage charges. He was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2020 in a trial Washington viewed as unfair.
In April this year, during Reed’s release, Whelan questioned why he was left out of the prisoner swap.
Bout, meanwhile, is a former Soviet military officer who has been in a prison in Ohio for the past decade. Nicknamed the “Merchant of Death”, he was convicted in 2012 on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, trading anti-aircraft missiles, and trafficking, among others.
Moscow, however, has long disputed the charges brought against him and his subsequent imprisonment.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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