For the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants to speak to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in the coming days. Blinken announced at a press conference in Washington that the release of US basketball player Brittney Griner and her compatriot Paul Whelan should be involved. He also wanted to address compliance with the new agreement on grain exports from Ukraine.
The US government made a comprehensive proposal to Moscow “weeks ago” to get Griner and Whelan released, Blinken said on Wednesday. He did not give details of the offer. National Security Council communications director John Kirby said he hoped Russia would respond. The decision to accept such an offer was not easy. The US government made the proposal public “so the world knows how serious the United States is about bringing our citizens home.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced in the evening that there was no official request for such a talk. Instead of using the “megaphone” for diplomacy, Washington should stick to diplomatic practice, Moscow said.
US basketball player Brittney Griner, who is in prison in Russia, was arrested on February 17 at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport for a drug offense. When her luggage was checked in February, she is said to have had so-called vape cartridges and a small amount of hash oil with her. Griner has admitted her guilt, but defended herself in court on Wednesday, saying she had used medical marijuana as a pain reliever in consultation with her doctor and had “no intention of violating any law in the Russian Federation”.
The US government criticizes that Griner is being held unjustly. Moscow rejects the accusation that the trial against Griner was politically motivated. The relationship between the two countries was already in tatters before the war began, and since then it has drastically deteriorated again.
Paul Whelan, who has multiple citizenships, was arrested in Russia in December 2018 and accused of espionage. He is said to have received secret information on a data carrier in Russia. In June 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison with the possibility of a stay in a labor camp. Whelan criticized the process as a political staging.
US media speculated that US-imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout could be part of the Washington bid. For years Moscow has been demanding the extradition of the former Soviet officer who is said to have illegally equipped autocrats and rebels in numerous countries with weapons. When asked, Kirby did not confirm the speculation and merely emphasized that he would not provide any further information on the nature of the offer.
In April, the US and Russia surprisingly exchanged prisoners in the middle of the Ukraine war. At the airport in the Turkish capital Ankara, the Russian Konstantin Yaroshenko was exchanged for the American Trevor Reed. In view of the hardened fronts between Washington and Moscow, the development was particularly unexpected at the time.
Blinken announced that during the talks with Lavrov he would also like to discuss compliance with the new agreement on the safe export of grain from Ukraine. “I will also address the tentative agreement on grain exports reached by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations last week,” the US chief diplomat said. “The agreement is a positive step forward, but there is a difference between an agreement on paper and an agreement in practice.”
On Friday, wartime opponents Ukraine and Russia signed an agreement with the United Nations and Turkey to allow grain exports from three Ukrainian ports across the Black Sea. According to Ukrainian sources, more than 20 million tons of grain from last year’s harvest are still waiting to be exported. Port operations were suspended for security reasons after the Russian invasion at the end of February. Ukraine had also mined its coast to protect against Russian landings.
