Brittney Griner’s defence team have given the prospect of including the WNBA star in a prisoner swap a cautious welcome, as Russia said talks between Moscow and Washington on exchanging prisoners were “ongoing”.
“Griner’s Russian defence team learned about US’s offer from the news … In any case, we would be really happy if Brittney will be able to come home and hope it will be soon,” said the WNBA star’s lawyers, Maria Blagovolina and Alexander Boykov, in a statement.
“The defence team is not participating in the swap discussions,” the lawyers added.
On Wednesday, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told reporters that the US offered a deal to Russia aimed at bringing back Griner and another jailed American, ex-US marine Paul Whelan.
CNN and the New York Times have reported that Washington was willing to exchange Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States, as part of a deal.
Commenting on Blinken’s statements, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told journalists on Thursday that negotiations between Moscow and Washington on exchanging prisoners are ongoing, but have not “resulted in concrete results”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “so far there are no agreements in this area”.
Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February. She acknowledged in court earlier this month that she had vape canisters containing cannabis oil when she arrived in Russia but contends she had no criminal intent and the canisters ended up in her luggage inadvertently. Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
The next hearing is planned for 2 August.
“From a legal point of view, an exchange is only possible after a court verdict,” Griner’s lawyers said.
Griner’s high-profile arrest has also brought renewed attention to the plight of Whelan, a former US marine who was detained in a Moscow hotel in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison two years later, accused of spying. Whelan has repeatedly denied the charges against him.
Whelan lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told the Guardian on Thursday he believed Moscow wanted Bout to be part of a swap for his client.
According to Zherebenkov, Russia in 2020 proposed to exchange Whelan for Bout and the Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, an offer he claimed was rejected by the US.
Zherebenkov said that at the time, an American diplomat met Whelan in prison and said that the trade was “unrealistic because Russia will start to kidnap our citizens, illegally accuse them and then trade for them”.
Zherebenkov said he believed that exchange this time would take place and was realistic.
“Now I think a trade is realistic because as far as I understand the Russian side has always been for a trade and in this case, it now appears to be the position of the American side.”
Russian officials have repeatedly expressed interest in the release of Bout, an arms dealer once labelled the “Merchant of Death”.
Bout’s wife, Alla, told RIA Novosti news agency on Wednesday evening said that her husband wasn’t aware of any negotiations taking place.
“We talked yesterday on the phone. Victor doesn’t know anything about the negotiations between Russia and the US. We, of course, assume such talks could be talking place … but we both don’t have any information on the talks,” she said.
If successful, Whelan and Griner’s prisoner swap would mark the second high-profile exchange between the two adversaries this year. On 27 April , Russia and the US carried out a prisoner exchange swapping the former US Marine Trevor Reed for Yaroshenko, who was convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States.
