Joe Biden don’t forget Brittney Griner. The President of the United States is to meet with family members of the WNBA player this Friday at the White House, as well as relatives of former American soldier Paul Whelan, also convicted and imprisoned in Russia.
These meetings will be the first face-to-face meeting between the President and the families. They are taking place against a backdrop of sustained, but so far unsuccessful, efforts by the administration to obtain their release. Joe Biden” wanted to let them know that they are staying front and center and his team is working on it every day, to make sure Brittney and Paul get home safe“, said his spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
She regretted: Although I would like to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer and that we are bringing their loved ones home, that is not what we are seeing in these negotiations at the moment. . The Russians should accept our offer today.“
Nine-year prison sentence for Brittney Griner
The basketball player has been detained in Russia since February following the discovery, in her luggage, of cannabis oil in the cartridges of electronic cigarettes. She was sentenced last month to nine years in prison after pleading guilty and appealing the sentence. His compatriot is serving a 16-year prison sentence for espionage charges. The US government considers both to be wrongfully detained.
For the record, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered Russia an exchange of prisoners to free the player. The head of American diplomacy had spoken, at the end of July, of a ” substantial proposal “emitted” several weeks ago to release Brittney Griner as well as Paul Whelan.
The US administration did not provide further details on its proposal, but a source confirmed to the AP that she had offered to release Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States.
