United States offers a deal to Russia for the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner
The Biden administration has offered Russia the release of WNBA star Griner, the former Marine Whalen.
key points
• The United States has offered the Russian government the release of WNBA star Brittany Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whalen, Secretary of State Anthony Blanken said Wednesday.viktor bout
“We had an important proposal on the table weeks ago,” Blanken told reporters at the State Department.
• The country’s top diplomat also said he would discuss the offer with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “in the coming days.”
• Blanken also declined to confirm whether the U.S. offer included the prisoner swaps of Gurner and Whelan for Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout, as reported by CNN.
WASHINGTON – The United States has offered the Russian government the release of WNBA star Brittany Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whalen, Secretary of State Anthony Blanken said Wednesday.
“We had an important proposal on the table weeks ago,” Blanken told reporters at the State Department.
The country’s top diplomat also said he would discuss the offer with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “in the coming days.”
“Our government has discussed this proposal repeatedly and directly, and I will use that conversation to personally follow up and, I hope, lead us to a resolution,” Blanken said. Ga,” said Blanken.
Blinken declined to provide additional details about the U.S. offer when pressed by reporters.
“When it comes to our efforts to secure the repatriation of Paul Whelan and Brittany Griner, you understand that I cannot go into the details of what I have suggested to the Russians over these weeks, nor Will enters,” he said.
Blanken also declined to confirm whether the U.S. offer included the prisoner swaps of Gurner and Whelan for Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout, as reported by CNN. Bott is currently serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison.
“This is critical work,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters during a White House press briefing. “We have made a proposal, and we urge the Russians to move forward positively on that proposal so that we can bring these two men home.”
brittney griner dunk
“I think the details of that are left between us and our Russian counterparts,” Kirby said.
Griner, 31, who played professional basketball in Russia during the WNBA offseason, was arrested at a Russian airport in February on charges that she was smuggling marijuana oil. If convicted, the charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
Griner has since pleaded guilty.
“I’m afraid I could be here forever,” the Olympian wrote in a letter to Biden earlier this month, pleading for direct help in her case.
After the letter, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with the WNBA star’s wife, Cheryl Greiner.
Biden assured his wife that he was working to secure Greiner’s release as soon as possible, according to a White House readout of the call. He also said on the call that he was working on the release of Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence in Russia.
Whalen was arrested in 2018 on charges of spying for the United States. At the time he was arrested, Whalen was on his way to Russia to attend a wedding, according to his brother David Whalen.
why was Brittney Griner in Russia
Last week, Biden signed an executive order that would expand the administration’s available tools to prevent hostage-taking and the wrongful detention of American citizens.
The executive order, known as “Strengthening Efforts to Bring Home Hostages and Wrongfully Detained United States Citizens,” authorized the imposition of financial sanctions and visa restrictions on those involved in hostage-taking. will give.
A senior Biden administration official said on July 19, “This executive order reflects the administration’s commitment not only to the issue in general, but to families in particular, and is informed by the administration’s regular engagement with them. has been done,” which discussed the condition on July 19. I spoke on condition of anonymity to share details about the new executive order.
In April, Russia agreed to release former US Marine Trevor Reed in a prisoner swap with the US.
Reed was accused of assaulting a Russian officer and was detained by authorities there in 2019. He was later sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison. Reid and his family have maintained their innocence, and the US government has called him unjustly imprisoned.
In exchange for Reid’s release, Biden agreed to release a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States.
The United States offered Russia a deal to release Brittany Griner while she was testifying in Moscow.
RIGA, Latvia — Secretary of State Anthony Blanken said Wednesday that the United States has made a “substantial proposal” to Russia to secure the release of two jailed Americans: WNBA star Brittany Gerner and security consultant Paul. Whelan.
The announcement came hours after Greiner faced the most critical moment yet in his Moscow drug trial. Didn’t fit. Giving evidence to a judge in an effort to plead guilty.
He faces up to 10 years in prison in a case that has further strained relations between the United States and Russia, already strained by the war in Ukraine. Blanken said he would speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a significant break from his past strategy of avoiding contact with Russian officials and isolating Moscow as much as possible.
Blanken’s comments will fuel speculation about a possible prisoner exchange involving Russian arms dealer Viktor Bot, dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” for plotting to kill American citizens and selling weapons to terrorists. is serving a 25-year sentence in Illinois for The Kremlin has been pushing for his release since his arrest in Thailand in 2008, and claims he was wrongfully convicted in a New York court in 2011.
Blanken would not say whether the bot was part of the deal offered to Russia. Bot’s lawyer told RIA Novosti that he could not comment on reports of his client’s possible exchange, but added that “it could change soon.”
White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday that the focus is on getting Greiner and Whalen home.
“We urge the Russians to move forward positively on this proposal so that we can bring these two men home,” Kirby said. “I think the details of that are left between us and our Russian counterparts.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry told Russian state media that Lavrov had not received an official request for a phone call from Blanken. A request for a phone call between Blanken and Lavrov was sent to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday morning, US officials said.
If completed, the prisoner exchange would be the second such deal since April, when the Biden administration agreed to release Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko in exchange for former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, a drug trafficker. He was locked up in jail. Attacking two Russian police officers.
But two former officials said Bout’s swap would mean letting go of a notorious criminal who the U.S. pursued for years, before his capture during an extensive Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation.
Former FBI Special Agent Robert Salle, who served as director of the interagency Hostage Recovery Fusion Cell, said in an interview that Victor Bout made a lot of progress. “This is a guy who was trading weapons to bad guys who were using them to kill Americans. This isn’t a Cold War spy-for-spy kind of deal. He’s a very bad guy in that sense. What he has delivered to America.
Salle said releasing the bot would send a message that detaining Americans could lead to major concessions from the U.S. government. But the administration, he added, is caught “between a rock and a hard place” at this stage. Such a prisoner exchange is “probably one of the ways they’re going to get [Greiner and Whalen] out.”
Another former official who worked on international prisoner exchanges said the Russians had raised the issue of Bout’s release several times before, but the U.S. Justice Department said such exchanges were “not always difficult.” has gone
“I know there are talks with Blankenship, but I can’t imagine that Blankenn would agree to that,” the former official said, adding that “low-level criminals” who are nearing the end of their sentences are closer, will be more likely candidates for exchange. The former official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing case.
Russian authorities in 2020 convicted Whelan, the corporate security director of a US auto parts supplier, of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years of hard labor. Greiner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February. Russian authorities detained him after two cartridges of cannabis were found in his luggage.
Greiner testified for the first time Wednesday in his trial, which began earlier this month.
Speaking from behind the bars of a courtroom cage where defendants are held during Russian trials, Greiner told the court that Russian authorities had not read him his rights during his arrest, and had him sign documents. was pushed for what she did not understand.
The Phoenix Mercury standout, who played in a Russian league during the WNBA offseason, testified during the four-month criminal investigation that followed her arrest that she struggled to understand what was happening.
Secretary of State Anthony Blanken said the Biden administration has offered Russia a deal aimed at repatriating basketball star Brittany Griner and another imprisoned American, Paul Whalen.
In a sharp reversal of previous policy, Mr. Blanken also said he expected to speak to his Kremlin counterpart for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The statement marks the first time the US government has publicly disclosed that it has taken any concrete action to secure the release of WNBA player Griner, who was arrested on drug-related charges at a Moscow airport in February. was done. Gary and the Wednesday preceding it Testified in the hearing.brittney griner wife
• WNBA’s Griner says rights not defined in Russia’s arrest.
• LeBron James criticized America’s handling of Greiner’s situation on his TV show.
Mr. Blanken did not offer details about the proposed deal, which was presented weeks ago, although it was unclear whether it would be enough for Russia to release the Americans.
But public acknowledgment of the offer at a time when the U.S. has otherwise distanced itself from Russia would reflect mounting pressure on the administration over Griner and Whalen, a corporate security executive jailed in 2020 for espionage. is, and shows his determination to bring them home.
Washington wants answers from Moscow, Mr. Blanken said.
Russia has for years expressed interest in the release of Viktor Bot, a Russian arms dealer once labeled the “merchant of death” who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 on the US charges that he embezzled millions of dollars. had planned to sell arms illegally.
Mr. Blanken said he had made a phone request to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. U.S. officials said the desire for answers to the detainee offer was the main, but not the only, reason why the U.S. requested a call with Mr. Lavrov on Wednesday, which, if held, would be the pair’s first since Feb. 15. There will be a discussion. About a week ago, Russia invaded Ukraine.
Mr. Blanken said he would also discuss with Mr. Lavrov the importance of Russia complying with a U.N.-brokered deal to free up several tons of Ukraine’s grain from storage, and that he would like to discuss the situation in eastern and southern Ukraine. Some will warn of the dangers of possible Russian annexation efforts. .
Greiner, who has been in Russian custody since last month, admitted in court this month that she had cannabis oil vape cartridges in her luggage when she arrived in Moscow in February but says she had no criminal intent and He had packed these cartridges inadvertently.
During her arraignment on Wednesday, Griner said she didn’t know how the hemp oil ended up in her bag but explained that he had given her a doctor’s recommendation and rushed it. What was packed?
He said he has pulled aside at the airport after inspectors found the cartridges, but that a language interpreter translated only part of what he said during questioning and that authorities released him without explanation. Instructed to sign the documents. Griner could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of drug trafficking.The United States offers a deal
This website is best for finding Government jobs of your own choice. We collected different government jobs from different newspapers. We provide you with the exact qualifications and other details about the post. You can find the latest government jobs on this website.
We are providing Latest Government Jobs, PM Shahbaz Sharif Laptop Scheme 2022, Marketing Jobs, Online Apply, jobs in Pakistan, Medical Department Jobs, online jobs in Pakistan, Business Jobs, Lesco Wapda, Pepco, Admissions, PAF Jobs, Pak Army Jobs, Pak Navy, PPSC, FPSC, NTS, PTS, Punjab Police Department, PM Shahbaz Sharif Laptop Scheme 2022, Atomic Energy, Banking, Medical, Teaching Jobs.
Government jobs link 1 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇
https://seoarticles4all.com/sitemap/
Get Free Laptop here 👇👇👇👇
https://seoarticles4all.com
Government jobs Link 2 👇👇👇👇👇
https://aiouhelps.com/
https://aiouhelper.com/
Join us on Whatsapp👇👇👇👇
https://chat.whatsapp.com/GYzeONTnmZ75HWidY3rUjJ
Join us on Facebook 👇👇👇👇
https://m.facebook.com/Englishliterature147/
Join us on our Youtube channel 👇👇👇
https://youtube.com/channel/UCGdJzqKVWCYxW0WgK1Oj9zA
Join Us on Telegram 👇👇👇👇👇
https://t.me/+gPj5ZxCk0Wk5MDU0
Join us on Twitter 👇👇👇👇👇👇
https://twitter.com/Majid_writer?t=Ob81WbPDHuo1JM9xAUo8Tw&s=09
Join Us on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/majid-farooq-76a0ab12b