At a White House press briefing on Tuesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan gave an update on last week’s meeting between President Joe Biden and the families of two Americans detained in Russia — WNBA star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan.
Biden met separately last week with Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, and Cherelle Griner, Brittney Griner’s wife — the first face-to-face meeting the president has had with the family members — where he shared his “continued commitment to working through all available avenues to bring Brittney and Paul home safely,” according to a statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Sullivan called both meetings “very practical, detailed discussions of both what the United States is doing to try to secure the release of” Whelan and Griner, as well as “what the family members can do to raise the profile of these cases and, also, to try to rally the world, to send a clear message to Moscow that it is time to end the unjust attention of these two individuals.”
“The President, of course, took the opportunity just to express his empathy, to comfort them to make clear that anytime they need to pick up the phone and call just to talk about it, he would be available,” Sullivan said.
Griner has been held in Russia since February on drug-related charges, and was sentenced last month to nine years in prison after pleading guilty. She has since appealed the sentence. Whelan is serving a 16-year sentence on espionage-related charges that he and his family say are false. The U.S. government regards both as wrongfully detained.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken took the unusual step of announcing two months ago that the administration had made a substantial proposal to Russia. Though he did not elaborate on the proposal, a person familiar with the matter has said the U.S. has offered to release convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The administration carried out a prisoner swap last April, with Moscow releasing Marine veteran Trevor Reed in exchange for the U.S. releasing a Russian pilot, Konstantin Yaroshenko, convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy.
On Friday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that Russia has not yet responded to the United States’ offer to bring Whelan and Kirby home, but said Biden “is not going to let up.”
“He’s confident that this is going to remain in the forefront of his mind and his team’s mind, and they’re going to continue to work as hard as they can,” Kirby told reporters.
Sullivan said that last week’s meeting “was really important for [Biden] to be able to look into the eyes of the family members, to just reinforce his own commitment to making sure that we get them home as rapidly as possible.”
"Fundamentally, the United States, at the direction of the president, has been prepared to take significant steps in order to secure the release that Brittney Griner and Paul we have we have communicated that to the Russians,” he said. “We've had direct discussions with the Russians on it on a regular basis over the course of the past few months.”
"Those conversations are continuing,” Sullivan continued, warning: “I won't say more from this podium about the precise details and nature of them so I can protect the possibility that they will succeed.”
“But the bottom line is that President Biden is prepared to take hard decisions to get them home,” he added. "The Russians understand what we are prepared to do. And from our perspective, it really is up to Moscow itself to then take the hard decision to actually move forward with this.
Sullivan promised that “we will continue to keep you posted as things develop, and as those conversations continue at multiple levels, including through channels between the White House and the Kremlin.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.