In a sharp reversal of past policy, Blinken also said he expected to speak with his Kremlin counterpart for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. The statement marked the first time the US government has publicly disclosed any specific action it has taken to secure the release of Griner, who was arrested on drug charges at a Moscow airport in February and testified Wednesday at her trial. Blinken did not elaborate on the proposed deal, which was offered weeks ago, although it is unclear whether it would be enough for Russia to free the Americans. But the public acknowledgment of the offer at a time when the US has otherwise avoided Russia reflects growing pressure on the administration over Griner and Whelan and its determination to bring them home. Blinken said Washington would like a response from Moscow. Russia has for years expressed interest in the release of Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer once dubbed the “Death Merchant” who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on charges of plotting to illegally sell millions of dollars in arms. . Blinken said he had requested a call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. U.S. officials said the desire for answers about the prisoner offer was the primary, but not the only, reason the U.S. requested the call with Lavrov on Wednesday. If the call goes ahead, it would be the first conversation Blinken and Lavrov have held since February 15, about a week before Russia invaded Ukraine. Blinken also said he would speak to Lavrov about the importance of Russia’s compliance with the UN-brokered deal reached in Turkey last Friday to release several tons of Ukrainian grain from storage and warn him about the dangers of possible Russian attempts to annex parts of eastern and southern Ukraine. Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. He and his family have strongly maintained his innocence. The US government has denounced the charges as false. Griner, in custody in Russia since the spring, acknowledged in court this month that she had vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage when she arrived in Moscow in February to play basketball in Russia, but claims she had no criminal intent and collected the cartridges by mistake. . At her trial Wednesday, Griner said she didn’t know how the hemp oil ended up in her purse, but explained she had a doctor’s recommendation for it and had packed it in a hurry. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of drug trafficking. The US government has long resisted prisoner swaps out of concern that it could encourage additional hostage-taking and promote a false equivalence between a wrongfully imprisoned American and a rightfully convicted foreign national. But an earlier deal in April, in which US Navy veteran Trevor Reed was swapped for jailed Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, appeared to open the door to similar resolutions in the future. The Biden administration has been hounded by political pressure to bring home Griner and other Americans wrongly labeled prisoners. There was no indication that Blinken and Lavrov had communicated to secure Reid’s release. Wednesday’s announcement was met with mixed reactions. Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, applauded Blinken’s efforts on Twitter but urged the State Department to include Mark Fogel in the deal. “I applaud the efforts of @SecBlinken & @StateDept to bring Britney Griner & Paul Whelan home, even if it means handing in Viktor Bout. I support the exchange. I just hope they include Marc Fogel in the deal. Booth is a true criminal. He deserves to free 3 innocent Americans,” McFaul wrote on Twitter. Fogel is an American teacher who was sentenced to 14 years in prison earlier this year after airport authorities in Moscow arrested him for carrying marijuana in his suitcases, which he insisted had been prescribed in the US after spinal surgery. Others were more critical, with one opponent tweeting: “Arms dealer for someone who had weed. I would say this trade is a steal for Putin. We need a new GM [general manager].” The New Hampshire Liberal Party responded to the news of the prisoner swap by writing for action on US drug crimes, saying: “America is angry with Russia for doing to Brittney Griner what it does to 374,000 people a year.”
