Senior administration officials say President Joe Biden plans to meet at the White House on Friday with the families of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia.
and get serious negotiations underway, one of the administration officials said Thursday.
, a convicted Russian arms dealer now imprisoned in the U.S. It is also possible that, in the interests of symmetry, Russia might insist on having two of its citizens released from prison.in July with Griner's wife, Cherelle, and with Whelan's sister, Elizabeth, but both families have also requested in-person meetings. On Friday, Mr. Biden plans to speak at the White House with Cherelle Griner and with the player's agent in one meeting and with Elizabeth Whelan in the other.
In the past several months, representatives of both families have expressed frustration over what they perceived as a lack of aggressive action and coordination from the administration. Whelan's relatives have sought to keep attention on his case, anxious that it has been overshadowed in the public eye by the focus on the far more prominent Griner — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time WNBA all-star. They also conveyed disappointment when Whelan, despite having been held in Russia since December 2018, was not included in a prisoner swap last April that brought home another detained American, Marine veteran Trevor Reed.
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