Following months of internal deliberation, the Biden administration has reportedly proposed to swap Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer now serving a 25-year US jail sentence, as part of a prospective compromise to gain their release.
These sources informed CNN that after being discussed since earlier this year, President Joe Biden supported the idea of trading Bout for Whelan and Griner.
The Department of Justice, which normally opposes prisoner trades, is overruled by Biden’s backing for the exchange.
Blinken did not explicitly state that Bout was a part of the agreement, stating that he “can’t and won’t get into any of the details of what we proposed to the Russians over the course of so many weeks now.”
However, he did state that the president “was of course not only directly involved, he signs off on any proposal that we make, and certainly when it comes to Americans who are being arbitrarily detained abroad, including in this specific case.”