POTUS Meets with Families of Russian Prisoners Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan

On Friday, President Biden met with family members of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, two Americans currently imprisoned in Russia.

Griner, an All-Star WNBA player for the Phoenix Mercury, was arrested in Russia last February, for possession of cannabis oil and sentenced in August to nine years in prison. The arrest raised red flags for many officials and citizens in the United States on account of it coinciding with Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, leading U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to deem the action a political move. Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine and Michigan businessman, was arrested in Russia in 2018 for allegedly being in possession of a USB drive containing classified information. In 2020, a Russian court found him guilty of spying and sentenced him to 16 years in a Russian labor camp.

In prisoner-swap negotiations with the Kremlin, the U.S. has offered to hand over Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer convicted of terrorism by a federal court in 2011. Commenting on the meeting, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that “while I would love 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're seeing in these negotiations at this time.”

Coverage of the meeting was mild and consistent across the spectrum.