U.S. and Russia Ready to Negotiate Griner’s Release

On the day after Brittney Griner was convicted in a Russian penal colony, top U.S. and Russian diplomats on Friday said their governments were ready to negotiate the release of the entire country. American basketball star and Paul N. Whelan, who was also jailed by Russia.

The diplomats, Foreign Minister Antony J. Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said in separate press conferences that the talks would be conducted through a channel previously established by their two presidents. .

But in a possible sign of how strained relations between the two countries are, the two men made the comment after sitting close together – but not talking – during a meeting between East Asian foreign ministers and foreign ministers. partner countries.

On Thursday, Miss Griner received a nine-year sentence from a Russian judge. US officials have said she was “wrongly detained” and that her trial was politically motivated, as relations between the two countries remain strained because of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Biden Administration provided to release Viktor Bout, a imprisoned Russian arms dealer, in exchange for Mrs. Griner and Mr. Whelan, a former US Marine who had was convicted by a court in Moscow of espionage in 2020, according to people familiar with the proposal.

After Friday’s meeting, Lavrov took the opportunity to criticize Mr. Blinken for not trying to talk to him.

“Today, there was only one person between us at the table,” Lavrov told a news conference broadcast by the foreign ministry. “I didn’t see him try to arrest me.”

Asked about Lavrov’s comments and Griner’s beliefs, Blinken stressed that discussions would be conducted through previously established channels.

“As you know, we made an important proposal that Russia should join us,” Blinken said. “And what Foreign Minister Lavrov said this morning, and said publicly, is that they are ready to engage through the channels that we have established to do that and we will pursue it.”

Russian officials have criticized the United States for what they describe as negotiating a prisoner swap in public.

Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, continued that criticism on Friday. “These swaps would never have happened if we started discussing any nuances of the exchange in the press,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Despite sending signals that a potential exchange is possible, Russian officials insist that legal proceedings must be completed first. After hearing the ruling on Thursday, Ms Griner’s lawyers said they would appeal the verdict, which would delay her start time in a penal colony.

In another key meeting with the likely implications of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, held their second face-to-face conversation in less than three weeks in the Russian Black Sea resort town of Sochi on Friday.

Mr. Erdogan has emerged as an important mediator between Ukraine and Russia, which is seeking to break out of the economic and political isolation imposed by the West over its invasion of Ukraine. Turkey, a NATO member and a EU applicants are long disappointedproved to be instrumental in creating an agreement between the two warring nations to restarting grain shipments of Ukraine across the Black Sea.

In a brief speech before the leaders’ discussions began, Putin thanked Erdogan for Turkey’s role in mediating a Ukrainian grain export deal that also allows the Russian grain and fertilizer exports. Focusing heavily on economic issues, Putin expressed hope that the talks would lead to strengthened trade and economic ties.

Erdogan said that the steps taken on issues such as energy, grains, the Black Sea and transportation are examples of the important roles Turkey and Russia play in the region.

Mr. Erdogan is trying to maintain the possibility of dialogue both with Russia, NATO’s enemy, and with the alliance’s Western members. Turkey has refused to join Western sanctions against Russia, irking its NATO allies, but Erdogan, in a significant move, has also downplayed his initial objections. against Sweden and Finland joining the alliance as a bulwark against Russian aggression.

Russia is a key energy supplier to Turkey, supplying a quarter of the country’s crude oil imports and nearly half of its natural gas purchases last year.

For its part, Turkey is becoming an important transit point for goods to Russia, now many Western freight companies no longer handle shipments coming from Russia for fear of defying orders. sanctions, the Turkish newspaper Dunya reported on Thursday.

But stark differences between the two leaders remain.

Their countries have supported opposing sides in the civil war in Syria, Turkey’s neighbor. The Kremlin has spent blood and treasure in support of President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey, which has hosted more than 3.7 million Syrian war refugees, backs the opposition rebels. and is threatening a new military offensive in northern Syria. They have also been involved in opposing sides in the border dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which broke out in war in 2020.

Their relationship over weapons is also complicated. In recent years, Turkey has defied NATO partners to buy Russian anti-aircraft missiles. And now, Russia – starved by war-related Western sanctions over technology like missile guidance systems and drones – is urgently searching for Matériel.

“Military-technical cooperation between the two countries is regularly on the agenda,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, according to the Interfax news agency.

In Ukraine, officials in the southern city of Mykolaiv on Friday announced a drastic move: The area will be locked down and put under strict curfew over the weekend as agencies Law enforcement track down the enemy.

Officials said the decision came amid a significant Russian escalation in shelling on the city, which has had only about two dozen days of violence-free since the fighting began on February 24. .

In recent weeks, officials have issued increasingly urgent warnings about the presence of subversive forces in the city, including those responsible for directing enemy fire into the city. military goals. ‌

Vitaliy Kim, the military governor of the Mykolaiv region, urged residents to stock up on food and water and cooperate with any law enforcement officials they may encounter over the weekend. Public transport will also be shut down.

Mr. Kim did not specify how law enforcement plans to find enemy collaborators, but in recent weeks he has offered $100 cash rewards from his own pocket to those who have not been identified. citizens suspected of being collaborators.

“Honesty people have nothing to worry about,” Kim said. “We will work on collaborators.”

Edward Wong reporting from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Neil MacFarquhar from Istanbul and Natalie Kitroeff from Mexico City.