Kremlin Ready To Discuss Prisoner Swap

Barely 24 hours after the Russian court jailed US basketball star Brittney Griner for nine years for a drugs offense, Russia has said it is ready to discuss a prisoner swap with the United States in private.

The case against Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, plunged her into a geopolitical maelstrom after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24th.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian President Vladimir Putin and US president Joe Biden had previously agreed on a diplomatic channel that should be used to discuss possible prisoner exchanges.

“We are ready to discuss this topic, but within the framework of the channel that was agreed upon by presidents Putin and Biden,” Lavrov said during a visit to Cambodia.

“If the Americans decide to once again resort to public diplomacy … that is their business and I would even say that it is their problem.”

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Washington was prepared to engage with Moscow through the established diplomatic channels. He said Griner’s conviction highlighted her wrongful detention by Russia and further compounded the injustice that had been done to her.

The Kremlin has remained tight-lipped on the prospect of a swap, saying that if prisoner exchanges were discussed in the media, they would never happen.

“The Americans have already made that mistake, suddenly deciding to use megaphone diplomacy to resolve these issues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“This is not how they are resolved.”

Peskov declined to comment on the court’s ruling on Griner. When asked if she could be pardoned, he said that the clemency procedure was coded in Russian laws.

Griner was arrested on February 17th at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.

The United States argued she was wrongly detained and being used as a political bargaining chip by Moscow. Russian officials dismissed the US assertion, saying Griner had broken Russian law and should be judged accordingly.

Griner, who had been prescribed medical cannabis in the United States to relieve pain from chronic injuries, said she had made an honest mistake by inadvertently packing her vape cartridges as she rushed to make her flight.

She pleaded guilty to the charges against her but insisted that she did not intend to break Russian law. Cannabis is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes.

Griner’s sentence – which Biden called “unacceptable” – could pave the way for a prisoner swap that would include the 31-year-old athlete and a prolific Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison term in the United States.

The United States has already made what Blinken called a “substantial offer” to secure the release of Americans detained in Russia, including Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan.