The Biden administration offers to hand over the convicted Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout, in return for bringing home the two Americans Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan. This is what the foreign minister in the USA, Antony Blinken, said at a press conference on Wednesday, according to AP. Blinken did not provide any details about the delivery. It is also uncertain whether the extradition of Bout will lead to Russia actually sending the two Americans home, writes AP. In 2012, Viktor Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the USA for arms smuggling. Photo: Apichart Weerawong / AP The proposal should have already been submitted in June, says a source to the American news channel CNN. American basketball star Brittney Griner was arrested at the airport in Moscow for the discovery of cannabis oil in February. She has been in custody since then. In 2020, the American Paul Whelan was sentenced to prison for 16 years for espionage. Will talk The foreign minister also said at the press conference that he will talk with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine. A telephone conversation between Blinken and Lavrov is planned. US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken together with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Switzerland in January 2022. Photo: ALEX BRANDON / AFP The conversation will not be about negotiations on Ukraine, Blinken underlines. Cannabis oil found The WBNA profiler was arrested at the airport in the Russian capital on February 17, after customs officials found cannabis oil for e-cigarettes in her luggage. Brittney Griner has pleaded guilty to possessing narcotic drugs. – I want to plead guilty, but it was not premeditated. I had no intention of breaking the law, Griner said in court in Khimki outside Moscow. WBNA profiler Brittney Griner was arrested at the Moscow airport for finding cannabis oil in February. Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP Now the American risks ten years in prison. Griner’s lawyers said in court that she had a prescription for medical cannabis for chronic pain due to sports injuries, writes CNN. She is charged with smuggling a significant amount of a narcotic substance. According to The New York Times, Griner’s e-cigarette cartridges contained 0.7 grams of cannabis oil. After her arrest, Griner has become at the center of a major political game, and on national day, July 4, she sent an open letter with a plea for help to President Joe Biden. US President Joe Biden has spoken to Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and has promised to do everything he can to get his spouse home, writes CNN. Charged with espionage Paul Whelan was arrested by the Russian secret police FSB in Moscow in 2018 and charged with espionage. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was a former US Marine who also holds British, Canadian and Irish citizenship. The American Paul Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage in Russia in 2020. Photo: Sofia Sandurskaya / AP When he was arrested, he worked as a security guard for an American company that sells car parts. Whelan was arrested at the Metropol hotel in the center of Moscow, where he was to celebrate a wedding, he said. Whelan claimed he was tricked by the secret police.
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The US offers to extradite convicted Russian against two Americans – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
