Russia is “ready” to discuss a prisoner swap with Washington at the presidential level, its foreign minister said yesterday, a day after the drug conviction of US basketball star Brittney Griner.
“We are ready to discuss this subject, but only within the framework of the [communication] channel established by” Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on a visit to Cambodia.
“There is a special channel established by the presidents and despite certain public declarations, it is still functional,” he said.
Photo: AFP
“If the Americans again decide to engage in public diplomacy and make thundering declarations ... that’s their business and their problem,” he said, adding that Washington is not able work “in a professional and calm manner.”
However, the discussions would not be held publicly, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“If we discuss prisoner exchanges via the press then they will never take place,” he said.
The statements came a day after a Russian court sentenced Griner to nine years in a penal colony on a drug smuggling charge.
The 31-year-old Griner, a two-time US Olympic champion, listened with a blank expression as an interpreter translated the verdict by Judge Anna Sotnikova, but her lawyers said later she was “very upset.”
US President Joe Biden denounced the verdict and sentence as “unacceptable.”
“I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends and teammates,” Biden said, adding that he would continue to work to bring home Griner and Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia on an espionage conviction.
Griner, recognized as one of the greatest female players in basketball history, has been detained since Feb. 17 after police said they found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage upon arrival in Moscow.
The nine-year sentence was close to the maximum of 10 years that Griner had faced under the charges.
Most Russians possessing small quantities of drugs get at most five years in prison, lawyers said.
Defense attorney Maria Blagovolina told reporters Griner was “very upset, very stressed. She can hardly talk. It’s a difficult time for her.”
On Wednesday last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had offered a deal to Russia aimed at bringing home Griner and Whelan in a sharp reversal of previous policy.
Details of the proposal were not announced, although a person familiar with the matter said the US has offered to trade convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for Whelan and Griner.
Russian media have also speculated that Griner could be swapped for Bout, nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” who is serving a 25-year sentence for conspiracy to kill Americans and providing aid to a terrorist organization.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS