Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow was ready to discuss prisoner exchanges with Washington through a diplomatic channel.
“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.
On Thursday (4), WNBA star Brittney Griner was sentenced by a Russian court to nine years in prison, with a fine of 1 million rubles (about US$16,400), in a court in the Russian city of Khimki. .
Griner was found guilty of drug smuggling, a crime the judge said she committed deliberately. She was arrested with less than a gram of cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport on February 17.
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that basketball star Brittney Griner’s sentence to nine years in prison on drug charges in Russia was “unacceptable” and urged Moscow to release her immediately.
“Today, US citizen Brittney Griner received a prison sentence that is yet another reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is unfairly detaining Brittney,” Biden said in a statement.
Exclusive report from CNN 27 report that the Biden administration has offered to exchange Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer sentenced to 25 years in prison in the US, as part of a possible deal to secure the release of Griner and Paul Whelan, another American. detained in Russia.
Source: CNN Brasil
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