Russia expressed astonishment Thursday that the United States has made public data on a prisoner exchange that would send American detainees Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan back to the United States, stressing that such an agreement does not yet exist.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said data on any prisoner exchange remained personal at a press conference on Thursday, continuing: “There are no agreements that are finalized yet. “
Peskov’s comments follow a CNN report Wednesday that the U. S. is a U. S. The U. S. Navy introduced the industry to Viktor Bout, a convicted arms dealer imprisoned in Illinois, to Griner and Whelan, while Secretary of State Antony Blinken showed that the U. S. The U. S. had made a “substantial proposal” to the Americans. .
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters on Thursday that there was no “concrete outcome” of the negotiations, and showed that talks were ongoing.
The State Department believes Griner, a WNBA star arrested in February, and Whelan, a former Marine arrested in 2018, were unjustly detained. it sparked a lot of interest in his case and questions about whether he attacked. Griner pleaded guilty to drug rates earlier this month and testified in a court on the outskirts of Moscow early Thursday, alleging the government failed to read her rights and forced her to sign documents she didn’t realize when she was arrested. Forbes first reported in May that the United States had submitted a prisoner exchange involving Bout and Griner to Russia.
The United States and Russia engaged in a prisoner exchange earlier this year, including amid damaged diplomatic relations, trading American Trevor Reed, a former Marine who allegedly assaulted a police officer, and Russian Konstantin Yaroshenko, a convicted drug dealer.
Bout, nicknamed “The Merchant of Death,” who played the character of Nicholas Cage in the 2005 film “Lords of War,” is still 14 years old to serve a 25-year sentence for supplying weapons to the then-Colombian-American organization FARC. organization designated as terrorist.
U. S. Gives Russia to Convict Arms Dealer in Exchange for Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, Report Reveals (Forbes)
Brittney Griner testifies to the Russian government’s remedy for her initial detention (Forbes)
USA. U. S. Offers Russia Deal to Launch WNBA Star Brittney Griner: What We Know and What We Don’t Know (ESPN)