MOSCOW (dpa-AFX) – According to information from Moscow, Russia and the USA have not yet been able to agree on an exchange of prisoners. After a move by the US government, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, announced on Thursday that no concrete result had yet been reached on the question of exchanging two US citizens. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was still no agreement.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced on Wednesday that a phone call “in the coming days” with his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov would be about the release of US basketball player Brittney Griner and her compatriot Paul Whelan, who were imprisoned in Moscow. Griner is currently facing a drug offense before a Russian court. Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage in June 2020.
There is speculation that the two Americans could be exchanged for the Russian arms dealer Viktor But, who is in prison in the United States. Zakharova said that the interests of both sides should be taken into account in the negotiations.
At a summit in Geneva in mid-June last year, US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a possible exchange of prisoners. In April, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and Russia exchanged Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko for US citizen Trevor Reed.
According to Zakharova, Putin and Biden had given their authorities the task of conducting negotiations on the exchange of prisoners last year. Relations between Moscow and Washington have long been shattered, and since the start of Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine there has been widespread radio silence.
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