GRINER PRISONER SWAP

RUSSIA’S foreign ministry said on

Thursday it was engaged in “quiet diplomacy” with the US regarding a potential prisoner swap that would include basketball star Brittney Griner.

She was sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia on drug charges on August 4 in a verdict that US President Joe Biden called “unacceptable”. Washington, which has argued that Griner was wrongfully detained, has offered to exchange her for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US. | Reuters