The Biden administration has offered a “substantial proposal” to the Kremlin in exchange for the release of two Americans the State Department considers wrongfully detained in Russia, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Blinken, in a press conference on Wednesday, acknowledged that the deal has been on the table for some time now, and he also said that he’s going to bring it up when he speaks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the coming days.
“In the coming days, I expect to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov for the first time since the war began,” the secretary said. “I plan to raise an issue that’s a top priority for us: the release of Americans Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner who are wrongfully detained and must be allowed to come home. We put a substantial proposal on the table … to facilitate their release.”
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“Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I used the conversation to follow up personally, and I hope [it will] move us toward a resolution,” he added.
Earlier this month, Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges after being arrested on Feb. 17 and has been detained ever since. She faces a 10-year prison sentence in a judicial system that overwhelmingly results in convictions. She testified on Thursday, telling the court that she was not read her rights at the time of her arrest and that she was forced to sign documents without explanation of what they were.
Whelan was arrested in late 2018 and was later convicted of espionage, charges that he still denies. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Blinken did not say what was included in the “substantial proposal” that would entice the Russians into giving up both Griner and Whelan, but CNN reported on Wednesday that it was Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The outlet reported that President Joe Biden has expressed his support for such a deal, which overrode the Department of Justice’s objection, though that is its standard stance on these types of deals.
Bout was given a 25-year prison sentence in 2012, roughly three years after he was arrested in Bangkok in a sting led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” has been accused of selling arms to sanctioned human rights abusers in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Congo, according to Amnesty International.
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Bout’s lawyer, Steve Zissou, told the Washington Examiner on July 7 that he believed the Kremlin would agree to this deal. He did not respond to a request for comment regarding Blinken’s comments.
“It remains to be seen whether or not … President Biden is going to be willing to acknowledge the obvious, and that is Viktor Bout’s going to be home soon, no matter what. Let’s get something for him,” he said earlier in the month. “It’s not like he just started the sentence yesterday. He’s been in jail for 15 years.”
