US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken says he had a “frank” discussion with Sergei Lavrov on American prisoners

The head of American diplomacy announced on Friday July 29 that he had had a discussion “frank and direct” with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Antony Blinken urged him to accept the United States’ offer to obtain the release of two Americans detained in Russia. “I called on the Kremlin to accept the substantial offer we made to them”said the US Secretary of State during a press conference.

This is the first meeting between the two men since the start of the war in Ukraine. The head of the American diplomacy announced on Wednesday that he planned to contact his Russian counterpart to discuss a United States offer to release basketball player Brittney Griner and ex-soldier Paul Whelan. It could be an exchange for Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States.

Antony Blinken declined to describe Sergei Lavrov’s reaction. “I can’t tell you if I think things are more or less likely”he said. “But it was important that he hear it directly.”

For its part, Russian diplomacy assured that the two ministers had “exchanged their opinions on the problem of bilateral relations which strongly need to be normalized”. “With regard to a possible exchange of Russian and American prisoners, the Russian side insisted on returning to the regime of professional dialogue, free from media speculation, within the framework of ‘discreet diplomacy'”she explained in a press release.