Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova says that Moscow will consider the request of the US State Department to arrange a conversation between Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart Anthony Blinken.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and American Anthony Blinken
The United States announced that it is seeking a telephone conversation between US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
“We have expressed our interest and made it clear to the Russian Federation that we are seeking a conversation between Foreign Ministers Blinken and Lavrov, and we have contacted our Russian counterparts to request a connection,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a press briefing today.
“On Wednesday, the Russian government became aware of a request for a telephone conversation,” Price added.
For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, announced that Lavrov would consider the request of the US State Department to arrange a conversation between him and his American counterpart, “when time permits.”
She noted that “Lavrov currently has an agenda full of international contacts, and is preparing to participate in the meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Tashkent.”
For his part, the US Secretary of State said, in a press conference, that he “will make a phone call, during the next few days, with his Russian counterpart,” in a conversation that is the first since the outbreak of the virus. The war in Ukraine.
Blinken added that he would raise “the issue of the release of two American citizens held by Russia, along with The recently reached grain agreementHe expressed his hope for the resumption of the export of Ukrainian grain to the countries of the world.
“I plan to raise issues that have been a high priority, which is the release of Americans Paul Whelan and Britney Greiner, who have been unjustly detained. They should be allowed to return home,” he said, adding that the US and Russian governments had “communicated repeatedly” regarding this matter.
Today, Thursday, Zakharova said that “the relevant departments are conducting negotiations on the exchange of prisoners between Russia and the United States, but No concrete result yet“.
In this context, she emphasized American media The administration of President Joe Biden “will propose to Russia that it extradite the detained Russian citizen, Victor Bout, in exchange for the two detained Americans, Britney Greiner and Paul Whelan.” She noted that Biden “approved the plan earlier this year.”
Biden had stated, earlier, that he would “make his priority to work for the release of the player Greiner from Russian prisons”, following a handwritten letter sent by Greiner to Biden, in which she said that she “fears imprisonment in Russia indefinitely”, appealing to him. Don’t forget regarding her.”
It is reported that Russia arrested former US Navy Seal Paul Whelan, who holds British, Irish and Canadian nationalities, in a Moscow hotel, on the last day of 2018, on charges of espionage and access to information classified as “state secrets”.
Also, the Russian authorities arrested basketball player Britney Greiner, on February 17, on charges of drug possession, and she was tried on July 8.
On the 27th of last April, The Russian Foreign Ministry announced the success of the exchange deal Former US Marine Trevor Rowdy Reed and Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, in Turkey.