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Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan who were arrested by Russia for drug charges |
Washington - The United States (US) authorities are ready to take the necessary steps to bring home Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, who were convicted in Russia.
This was revealed by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at a press conference. On that occasion, Jean-Pierre added, Washington urged Moscow to accept the prisoner swap proposal.
"Under President Biden's direction, the US government continues to work aggressively, pursuing every avenue to bring home Brittney, Paul Whelan, and every American held hostage and wrongfully detained around the world. As you all know, we have made a substantial offer to bring home Brittney and Paul Whelan.
We urge Russia to accept the proposal," he added. "I cannot share more publicly at this time, but we are willing to take every step necessary to bring our people home.
And that is what we are going to do here," he stressed. "I can assure you that this is something that the President and our national security team focus on every day," he was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency, TASS, Friday (5/8/). 2022).
Earlier, the Moscow Region Khimki Court sentenced US basketball player Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for drug smuggling and possession. The sentence was lower than the prosecutor's demand for 9.5 years.
Earlier, Washington offered Moscow to swap Whelan and Griner for Russian national Viktor Bout, who is imprisoned in the US for arms trafficking.
The exchange was one of the points of discussion in a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The Russian Foreign Ministry said after the talks that Lavrov strongly advised Blinken to return to "silent diplomacy" on this issue.