WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) -Former Governor Bill Richardson, who has privately worked to secure the release of American detainees abroad, has held meetings this week in Russia, where WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan remain jailed, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was on his way back, the source said, but did not provide further details on whom he met with or how his meetings went.
A spokesperson for Richardson said he was unable to comment on this at the moment.
The Kremlin on Wednesday had no comment on Richardson’s trip. “There were no meetings at the Kremlin,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. “I have nothing to tell you on this subject.”
The former New Mexico governor’s Richardson Center specialises in negotiating the release of prisoners and hostages. He has been involved in the release of several high-level prisoners, including that of American Danny Fenster from a Myanmar prison last year.
The Richardson Center said it could not comment. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Richardson’s trip.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star, was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison on drug charges on Aug. 4, a verdict that U.S. President Joe Biden called “unacceptable”.
The United States in August said it has put forward a “substantial offer” on the table to secure the release of the two Americans.
Russia’s foreign ministry said last month it was engaged in “quiet diplomacy” with the United States about a potential prisoner swap that could include Griner and Whelan.
But there have been few public developments on the issue over the past weeks.
Washington has offered to exchange Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout for Griner and Whelan, sources familiar with the situation have told Reuters.
Whelan, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in jail after being convicted of spying. He denied the charge.
Griner, who had been prescribed medical cannabis in the United States to relieve pain from chronic injuries, was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in February with vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage.
Cannabis is illegal in Russia for both medicinal and recreational purposes.
(Reporting by Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington, Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey, Mark Potter, William Maclean and Jonathan Oatis)
