(CNN) — Russia has refused to release Paul Whelan along with Brittney Griner unless a former colonel and Russian national spy currently being held in Germany is also released as part of the prisoner exchange, US officials told CNN.
This comes even following the United States offered to exchange several other Russian prisoners in US custody.
The United States was unable to comply with the request of the former colonel, named Vadim Krasikov, because he is serving a life sentence for murder in Germany.
CNN first reported exclusively last August that Russia had asked that Krasikov be released along with Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer serving a 25-year sentence in the United States, in exchange for Whelan and Griner.
US officials quietly asked the Germans if they would be willing to include Krasikov in the trade, a senior German government source told CNN earlier this year. But ultimately the US might not negotiate Krasikov’s release.
The German government was not willing to seriously consider including Krasikov, who had murdered a Georgian citizen in broad daylight in Berlin in 2019, in the negotiation, the German source said.
Brittney Griner
The United States made several other offers to the Russians, the sources said, to get them to agree to include Whelan in the trade. Among the names put forward by the US was Alexander Vinnik, a Russian citizen extradited to the US in August on charges of money laundering, computer hacking and extortion.
The United States also offered to trade Roman Seleznev, a convicted Russian cybercriminal currently serving a 14-year sentence in the United States, the sources said.
A lawyer for Seleznev did not respond to a request for comment. Frédéric Bélot, a lawyer who represented Vinnik in France before his extradition to the United States, told CNN on Friday that he was not aware of any discussion between Moscow and Washington regarding including Vinnik in a possible prisoner swap. .
But Bélot said Vinnik might be seen as part of future prisoner exchange negotiations.
“They [Vinnik y Whelan] they are part of the possible ‘candidates’ for the next swap,” Bélot said in a text message to CNN.
Since Vinnik’s extradition to the US in August, Bélot has appealed directly to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to help secure Vinnik’s release from US custody.
But ultimately the Russians indicated they would only be willing to trade someone they considered a spy, Whelan, who was convicted on espionage charges in 2019, for one of Russia’s spies: Krasikov.
The National Security Council declined to comment on the matter.
A senior government official acknowledged to CNN Thursday night that the Russian side had repeatedly demanded someone who was not even in US custody, even as the US made several different proposals. In the end, the Russians continued to ask for the same thing that the United States simply might not deliver, the official said.
“We have shown an openness to talk regarding what is available from our side and we only got a demand in response for something that is not available,” the official said, reiterating that the Russians rejected what had been offered to secure Paul’s release. Whelan.
