Russia optimistic about Griner swap

Russia for the first time expressed guarded optimism about talks with the U.S. on a prisoner exchange involving WNBA star Brittney Griner and another jailed American.

“Quiet diplomacy is continuing, and it should bear fruit, if of course, Washington strictly follows it without slipping into propaganda,” Alexander Darchiyev, head of the North American department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with the state Tass news service published on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said this month they’re willing to pursue the talks a day after a Moscow court sentenced Griner to nine years in prison on drug charges.

Last month, the Biden administration proposed a swap involving Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was jailed in Russia in 2020 on spying charges he denies. In return it’s ready to free Viktor

Bout, a Russian arms dealer known as the “merchant of death” who was sentenced to 25 years in 2012, and a second Russian also held in a

U.S. jail, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.