For the first time since the Ukraine War, the top diplomats of the United States and Russia spoke on Friday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the conversation as “frank” as he pleaded for the release of two Americans.
As he pushed Russia to accept a proposal to release inmates, Blinken called Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whom he had avoided as early as a few weeks prior.
“We had a frank and direct conversation. I pressed the Kremlin to accept the substantial proposal that we put forth on the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner,” Blinken told reporters.
President Joe Biden has faced growing public pressure to find a way home for Griner, a basketball star jailed for transport of cannabis oil, and Whelan, a former Marine jailed on espionage charges he denies.
Blinken declined to characterize Lavrov’s reaction, saying, “I can’t give you an assessment of whether I think things are any more or less likely.”
“But it was important that he heard directly from me on that,” Blinken said.
Russia’s foreign ministry, in a statement on the call, said that relations between the two nations “are in strong need of normalization.”
“As for a potential swap of Russian and American prisoners, the Russian side insisted that we return to a regime of professional dialogue, free of media speculation, in the framework of discreet diplomacy,” it said.
According to the foreign ministry, Lavrov also criticized the US military and NATO for providing Ukraine with billions of dollars’ worth of armaments, stating that this “simply prolonged the suffering of the Kyiv regime, extending the battle and its victims.”
