United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that he had a conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during which they discussed the release of two American citizens imprisoned in Russia, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) champion Brittney Griner and former US marine Paul Whelan.
"I pressed the Kremlin to accept the substantial proposal that we put forth on the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner," stated Blinken. He did not disclose what the US negotiated in return.
