Biden meets with Brittney Griner’s family

President Joe Biden is due to meet Friday with family members of American basketball star Brittney Griner, who remains being held in a Russian prison on drug-related charges.

Biden will also meet with the family of Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia since 2018 on espionage charges.

The Associated Press reported that the “separate meetings are meant to be the first face-to-face encounters between Biden and the families and come amid ongoing but so far unsuccessful government efforts to secure the Americans’ release.”

“He wanted them to know that they are remembered and that his team works every day to make sure Brittney and Paul return home safely,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a news conference Thursday at the White House, as quoted by the Associated Press.

She was found guilty by a Russian court last month and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison.

Her detention has become a symbol in deteriorating US-Russia relations, reaching the highest levels of diplomacy in both countries.

The United States has sought a prisoner swap that would see the release of Griner and Whelan in exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer currently serving a 25-year sentence in the United States

“Although I would like to say that the purpose of this meeting is to inform the families that the Russians have accepted our offer and we are bringing their loved ones home – that is not what we are seeing in these negotiations at this point .” said Jean-Pierre on Thursday, as quoted by the Associated Press. “The Russians should accept our offer. The Russians should accept our offer today.”

Griner’s legal team appealed the conviction last month, a process that will likely take months.

Griner, who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, pleaded guilty to the drug charges but insisted she had no intention of breaking the law.

She traveled back to Russia to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, the Russian team she plays for in the WNBA off-season.

“I want to apologize to my teammates, my club, my fans and the city (Ekaterinburg) for the mistake I made and the embarrassment I caused them,” Griner said in the Russian courtroom last month, when she begged for leniency. “I also want to apologize to my parents, my siblings, the Phoenix Mercury organization back home, the amazing women of the WNBA and my amazing spouse back home.”

Following Griner’s conviction last month, Biden denounced the verdict.

“Today, American citizen Brittney Griner was sentenced to prison in another reminder of what the world already knew: Russia is wrongly holding Brittney,” Biden said in his statement.

“This is unacceptable and I call on Russia to release her immediately to be with her wife, loved ones, friends and teammates,” Biden said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also condemned the conviction.

“It highlights our very significant turnaround with the Russian legal system and the Russian government’s use of unlawful detention to advance its own agenda by using individuals as political pawns,” Blinken said last month.

Blinken has called the prisoner swap offered by the United States a “substantial proposal”.