Families of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan met with Biden to negotiate their return to the United States.
Families of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan met with Biden to negotiate their return to the United States.
Griner and Whelan are currently being held in a Russian jail.
According to the White House, President Biden has begun visiting with family members of Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan to express his ongoing commitment to bringing them home safely.
The sessions, which began at 4:51 p.m. ET, were attended by Griner's wife Cherelle, her agent Lindsay Colas, Whelan's sister Elizabeth, and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs Jake Sullivan.
"The key purpose of today's discussions is to keep the families informed of where we are in the process and to demonstrate to them how important it is for President Biden and his whole team to get them home. Today's emphasis is on "John Kirby, the National Security Council Coordinator, stated on Friday.
Brittney Griner, WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold winner, enters a cage in a courtroom preparatory to a hearing in Khimki, Russia, Aug. 4, 2022. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool Photo via AP)
Meetings with Griner's and Whelan's families were scheduled separately. It is the Biden administration's first in-person meeting with the families.
Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian jail in February for carrying vape cartridges containing cannabis-derived oils through a Moscow airport. Whelan was convicted of false espionage accusations and is receiving a 16-year sentence.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the Biden administration made a "serious request" to Russia to repatriate Griner and Whelan at the end of July. According to US sources, Russia has yet to reply to the offer.
Brittney Griner is led by police to her Russian hearing. (Getty Images)
"But it doesn't mean we aren't still in talks," Kirby added.
Kirby was shocked that Russia had not responded on Friday.
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SAYS RUSSIA HAS NOT RESPONDED TO OUR OFFER REGARDING BRITNEY GRINER AND PAUL WHELAN RELEASE.
"We made a genuine bid. To be honest, we want them to accept it. These two people should be at home in any case "Kirby said. "But we recognize that it will almost certainly be the outcome of the negotiation process, in which we are prepared to participate honestly and openly, as we have been. And we're waiting for them to accept the offer."
Paul Whelan, a former US marine suspected of espionage and imprisoned in Russia in December 2018, appears inside a defendants' cage as he awaits his decision in Moscow on June 15, 2020. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
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