United States (U.S.) Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference at the Department of State in Washington, DC, U.S., Wednesday, January 11, 2023. The States U.S. and Japan announce intent to strengthen defense cooperation on land and sea, and in space as they express growing concern over growing challenges posed by China and its relationship with Russia ./Bloomberg
Bisnis.comJAKARTA — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the United States and Russia are engaged in a prisoner swap dialogue, but the talks have been irregular.
Blinken said that in an interview he conducted with Fox News on Tuesday (2/5/2023).
“The dialogue is irregular. We have been in contact. We keep in touch through our embassy (in Russia),” he said, as reported by TASS on Tuesday (2/5/2023).
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that a special channel was created as part of an agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden after they met in Geneva in June 2021.
Putin and Joe Biden’s meeting discussed Russian citizens detained in the United States and American citizens detained in Russia.
“I will not be revealing a big secret if I tell you that this channel is not intended to engage journalists and is not intended to openly expose certain situations in order to put pressure on serious professional negotiations which are currently in progress” , Lavrov said.
Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said around 100 Russians were currently being held in the United States (US) as of April 2023.
US authorities recently actively tried to swap Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is being held in Russia, and Paul Whelan, who was convicted of espionage in Russia.
According to the Public Relations Center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia, Gershkovich acted as an agent of the American side which collected top secret data on the activities of enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.
In this regard, the journalist was detained in Yekaterinburg and criminal charges were brought against him under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code (espionage) at the end of March.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Gershkovich was caught off guard. The Lefortovo court in Moscow approved his arrest until May 29, 2023.
Whelan, a US, Canadian and Irish national, as well as a British national, was arrested in a spy raid by Russian FSB agents in a room at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow on December 28, 2018.
Investigators opened a criminal investigation against him under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code. The Moscow City Court found Whelan guilty and sentenced him to 16 years in a strict-regime colony.
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