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The Guardian - US

World

Martin Pengelly in New York

Blinken’s Moscow policy criticized by envoy who helped free Brittney Griner

Brittney Griner Bill Richardson United States Antony Blinken Moscow Ned Price Sergei Lavrov Trevor Reed United Nations WNBA

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was criticized for his reluctance to meet with the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov. — The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, was criticized for his reluctance to meet with the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Sergei Lavrov. Photograph: Debbie Hill/EPA

A former US diplomat who participated in efforts to free the WNBA star Brittney Griner from jail in Russia has harshly criticised the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the Biden administration over their approach to diplomacy with Moscow.

Cameron Hume, a career diplomat who was an ambassador under Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama, said: “For a secretary of state to not want to even get body language or two words from Sergei Lavrov about the situation in Moscow, in the Kremlin, in the people who are close to [Vladimir] Putin, during a time of war was striking to me.

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