US Still Talking to Russia About Release of Griner, Whelan: Diplomat

U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner stands inside a defendants' cage during the reading of the court's verdict in Khimki, Russia, outside Moscow, on Aug. 4, 2022. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/Reuters)

LONDON—The United States is still talking to Russia about a deal to free jailed Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, although Moscow hasn’t provided a “serious response” to any of its proposals, a senior U.S. diplomat said in comments published on Nov. 28.

Elizabeth Rood, the U.S. chargée d'affaires in Moscow, told Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency that talks are continuing through the “designated channel.”

“The United States, as we have said, has put a significant proposal on the table. We have followed up on that proposal and we have proposed alternatives,” she said. “Unfortunately, so far the Russian Federation has not provided a serious response to those proposals.”

Basketball star Griner was taken this month to a penal colony in the Russian region of Mordovia to serve a nine-year drug sentence after being arrested in February with vape cartridges that contained cannabis oil. She said at her trial that she used them to relieve the pain from sports injuries and hadn’t meant to break the law.

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, is serving 16 years in the same region on charges of espionage, which he denies.

Elizabeth Rood, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, speaks to the members of the media after leaving the court hearing of U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner in Khimki outside Moscow on July 26, 2022. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Nov. 18 he was hopeful of agreeing to a prisoner swap that could see the release of Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian weapons trafficker who is in a U.S. prison.

In her interview, Rood also held open the possibility of a follow-up to a meeting between CIA Director William Burns and Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin in Istanbul two weeks ago—the first publicly announced face-to-face meeting between top officials of the two countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

“The United States has channels for managing risk with the Russian Federation, particularly nuclear risks, and that was the purpose of CIA director Burns’s meeting with his Russian counterpart,” Rood said.

“Director Burns did not negotiate anything and he did not discuss a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. I’m sure if there’s a need for another conversation in that channel, it can happen. There’s not anything scheduled that I know of.”

Washington has said Burns used the meeting to warn about the consequences of any Russian use of nuclear weapons. Russia has declined to comment on what was discussed, describing the subject matter as sensitive.