Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.
Associated Press Associated Press
Leave your feedback
State Department spokesman Ned Price held a news briefing on Monday as the U.S. continues to negotiate with Russia over the release of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
Watch Price’s remarks in the player above.
On Saturday, former professional basketball player Dennis Rodman said he plans to visit Russia to seek Griner’s release. Price said that Rodman’s potential visit would only “hinder and complicate” the negotiations that are currently happening.
Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug. 4 after police said they found vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport.
READ MORE: WNBA star Brittney Griner appeals her Russian prison sentence for cannabis
Reflecting the growing pressure on the Biden administration to do more to bring Griner home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of revealing publicly in July that Washington had made a “substantial proposal” to get Griner home, along with Paul Whelan, an American serving a 16-year sentence in Russia for espionage.
Blinken didn’t elaborate, but The Associated Press and other news organizations have reported that Washington has offered to free Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who is serving a 25-year sentence in the U.S. and once earned the nickname the “Merchant of Death.”
Price also spoke about the government’s response to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. As the U.S. and Europe weigh Iran’s latest response to an EU proposal described as the West’s final offer, the administration faces new and potentially insurmountable domestic political hurdles to forging a lasting agreement.
By Associated Press
By Associated Press
By Associated Press
Associated Press Associated Press
Support Provided By: Learn more
Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.
Additional Support Provided By:
Nation Aug 04
© 1996 – 2022 NewsHour Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Sections
About
Stay Connected
Subscribe to ‘Here’s the Deal,’ our politics newsletter
Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.
Learn more about Friends of the NewsHour.
Support for NewsHour Provided By

source