US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken revealed that this Friday he had a “frank and direct” conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The topic was the release of two Americans held in Russia.
“I pressured the Kremlin to accept the substantial proposal. we sent about the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner,” Blinken said at a news conference.
As CNN reported this week, the proposal suggests swapping the former Marine and WNBA star for Viktor Bout, a notorious Russian arms dealer serving 25 years in prison in the United States. For now, Blinken did not offer details on Lavrov’s response to the potential deal.
The US offers famous arms dealer Russia in exchange for Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan
The head of US diplomacy took advantage of the call to also talk about the war in Ukraine. The Russian minister assured that the world “will never recognize the annexation of Ukrainian territories”.
In turn, Lavrov accused the US of not fulfilling its promise to lift sanctions to facilitate food exports from Russia. The minister assured that Russia will achieve all the objectives of the “special operation” in Ukraine and that in the “liberated territories” life is already returning to normal.
Still on the war in Ukraine, Lavrov emphasized that equipping the Army and the “Ukrainian ultra-nationalist battalions” with US and NATO weapons, which “are used massively against the civilian population, only prolong the agony, the conflict and the multiplication of victims. ” of the kyiv regime. . He also claimed that the Russian military “strictly” respects international law.
This was the first conversation between the two top diplomats since the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than five months ago.
Source: Observadora
