Russia’s Kremlin says Brittney Griner swap must be discussed without publicity

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken were both in Cambodia on August 5 for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Kremlin said on August 5 that it's open to talking about a possible prisoner exchange involving American basketball star Brittney Griner but strongly warned Washington against publicising the issue.

Griner, a two-time U. S. Olympic champion and an eight-time all-star with the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, has been detained in Russia since February 17 after police at Moscow's airport said they found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage.

A judge convicted the 31-year-old athlete on August 4 of drug possession and smuggling and sentenced her to nine years in prison. The politically charged case comes amid high tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia's military action in Ukraine.

In an extraordinary move, U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last week to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, would go free.

Mr. Lavrov and Mr. Blinken were both in Cambodia on Friday for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN.) Mr. Blinken did not even glance at his Russian counterpart as they took their seats at an East Asia Summit. Mr. Lavrov told reporters that Mr. Blinken didn't try to contact him while they were attending the ASEAN meeting.

“We were separated by just one person at the discussion table, but I didn't feel his desire to catch me. My buttons are all in place,” he said when asked about Washington's statement that Mr. Blinken would try to buttonhole Mr. Lavrov for a quick interaction in Phnom Penh.

Mr. Lavrov said Moscow was “ready to discuss” a prisoner swap but that the topic should only be discussed via a dedicated Russia-U.S. channel that U. S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to establish when they met in Geneva in June 2021.