Senior administration sources informed The Associated Press that Vice President Joe Biden will visit on Friday with the families of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security officer Paul Whelan, both of whom remain imprisoned in Russia.
The visits will be the first face-to-face encounter between Vice President Biden and the families, and they will take place amid the administration’s persistent but fruitless efforts to obtain the Americans’ release. The administration stated in July that it had made a “serious proposal” to bring them home, but despite the talks scheduled at the White House, there is no indication that a breakthrough is forthcoming.
Since February, Griner has been detained in Russia on drug-related allegations. She was sentenced to nine years in prison last month after pleading guilty, and she has appealed the sentence. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence for allegations related to espionage that he and his family claim are untrue. The U.S. government considers them to be unjustly incarcerated and has sent their cases to the office of its chief hostage negotiator.
Friday’s meetings, which both families have long sought, are intended to emphasize the administration’s commitment to bringing Griner, Whelan, and other Americans jailed abroad home, as well as to “connect with them on a human level as they undergo an ordeal that the Russian government has imposed on them,” according to one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings had not yet been made public.
The sour relations between Washington and Moscow over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have hindered negotiations.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the extraordinary step of announcing the administration’s big proposal to Russia two months ago. One of the government’s officials stated on Thursday that, since then, the administration has followed up in a variety of ways to promote its offer and commence meaningful conversations.
The Russians, who have indicated that they are open to conversations but have urged the United States to conduct them in private, have retorted with proposals that are beyond the administration’s capabilities to implement, according to the official, who declined to explain. The official stated that the United States has been following up through the same routes that led to the April prisoner swap that brought Marine veteran Trevor Reed home from Russia.
A person familiar with the case previously stated that the administration has offered to free Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer currently incarcerated in the United States. In the spirit of symmetry, it is also likely that Russia might insist that two of its citizens be released from prison.
In July, Biden spoke with Cherelle Griner and Elizabeth Whelan via telephone, but both families have also requested in-person encounters. Biden plans to meet with Cherelle Griner and the player’s agent on Friday at the White House, and Elizabeth Whelan on the same day.
Separate sessions are being held so that each family can have individual time with the president. The fact that they are occurring on the same day demonstrates how interconnected the two cases have become, since the only settlement that is apparently acceptable to the U.S. would be one that brings both Americans — a well-known WNBA player and a previously unknown Michigan man — home at the same time.
Representatives of both families have expressed frustration over what they believe to be a lack of proactive action and cooperation on the part of the government in recent months.
Cherelle Griner, for example, told The Associated Press in a June interview that she was unhappy when a phone call from her wife that was meant to have been patched through by the American Embassy in Moscow failed and prevented the couple from connecting on their fourth wedding anniversary.
Concerned that his case has been eclipsed by the far more prominent Griner — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA all-star — Whelan’s relatives have pushed to keep the spotlight on him. Griner is a two-time Olympic gold winner and seven-time WNBA all-star. They also expressed dismay that Whelan, who has been jailed in Russia since December 2018, was not included in a prisoner swap in April that resulted in the release of another detained American, Marine veteran Trevor Reed.
Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a veteran envoy in hostage and detainee cases, made an unrelated trip to Russia this week, and Friday’s meeting was set before to the news breaking. State Department spokesman Neal Price stated on Wednesday that contact with Russia outside the “established channel” risked impeding attempts to return Griner and Whelan to the United States.
Administration officials assert that work on hostage and detainee cases will continue regardless of whether a family obtains a visit with the president, but there is no doubt that such a meeting can help develop a rapport. In March, Biden met with Reed’s parents in the Oval Office after the Texas couple held a giant sign outside the White House demanding their son’s release.