Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone on Friday about a U.S. proposal to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner and fellow jailed American Paul Whelan.
Blinken said he “pressed the Kremlin to accept” the offer during what he described as a “frank and direct conversation.”
“I urged Foreign Minister Lavrov to move forward with that proposal,” Blinken said. “I’m not going to characterize his response and I’m not going to give you an assessment of whether I think things are any more or less likely, but I think it was important he hear directly from me on that.