DEVELOPING: The Kremlin says it's open to talking about a possible prisoner exchange for Brittney Griner but strongly warns the U.S. against publicizing the issue. abc15
Griner, a two-time U.S. Olympic champion and an eight-time all-star with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17 after police at a Moscow airport said they found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.
In an extraordinary move, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last week to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, would go free. "We were separated by just one person at the discussion table, but I didn't feel his desire to catch me. My buttons are all in place," he said when asked about Washington's statement that Blinken would try to buttonhole Lavrov for a quick interaction in Phnom Penh.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the same point more harshly, saying"the U.S. already has made mistakes, trying to solve such problems via 'microphone diplomacy.' They are not solved that way." People familiar with the U.S. proposal have said it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for a notorious Russian arms trader, Viktor Bout. He is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. after being convicted of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and providing aid to a terrorist organization.
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