The US offers Russia a prisoner exchange to recover the basketball player Brittney Griner

WNBA star Brittney Griner during one of her trial sessions in Russia. ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO / POOL (EFE)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed on Wednesday that the United States had offered a prisoner exchange to Russia.

The proposal, which was "put on the table a few weeks ago", aims to recover two Americans in the hands of Moscow, basketball player Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020. Griner, one of the top stars of the WNBA professional league, is facing a legal process that could lead to a sentence of 10 years in prison for having introduced cartridges with cannabis oil into the country.

The 31-year-old athlete has declared this Wednesday for the first time in the trial, that she has as a backdrop the pulse between the two powers after the war in Ukraine.

Blinken has not disclosed who they will hand over to Vladimir Putin's regime to obtain these releases.

assures, however, that the beneficiary would be Viktor Bout, an arms dealer who is called "The merchant of death"

and who inspired a 2005 film starring Nicolas Cage.

Bout, a 55-year-old former Air Force soldier, is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

In 2012 he was found guilty by a federal judge of leading an international arms trafficking operation for Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

He was arrested four years earlier by agents of the DEA, the drug enforcement agency, in an international hunt that ended in Thailand.

The extradition process to the United States took two and a half years and with the Russian government trying to torpedo it.

According to the US press, the exchange proposal was made since last June.

Blinken has refused to confirm Wednesday to CNN that Bout will be the piece with which it is intended to bring back Griner and Whelan, 52 years old.

The person in charge of Foreign Affairs for President Joe Biden has said that he does not want to jeopardize the operation and that he intends to communicate it directly to Sergei Lavrov, his counterpart in Moscow.

Relations between the two countries have become very tense since February 24, when Putin's troops invaded Ukraine.

Russia did not report Griner's arrest until after the start of the military operation.

The player has recounted this Wednesday before the court the first hours of her arrival in Europe, on February 17.

She traveled to play professional league basketball while her team, the Mercury Phoenix, was on break.

The athlete said that after the 13-hour flight she was taken to a room where she was interrogated and much of what she was told was not translated into English.

She was also asked to sign documents that were written in Russian.

On July 8, she pleaded guilty to having brought hashish cartridges to the country and argued that these are for medicinal use, as they help reduce pain.

Experts say that a conviction is necessary in her case so that she can be exchanged for a prisoner.

"We hope that the Russian Government will respond to the offer made by the US Administration and accept this or some other prerogative that allows Paul to return home to his family," David Whelan, brother of the former Marine arrested in 2019 and charged with charges, said on Wednesday. Espionage Moscow.

Washington has considered the arrests of Whelan and Griner "unjust and illegal."

Griner's case has gained notoriety in the United States in recent weeks.

The basketball player sent a letter to President Biden in early July in which he asked not to forget about her.

He responded with correspondence, which has not been made public, and with a call to the athlete's wife, Cherelle, to whom he promised that he would do everything possible to get Griner back, who won two Olympic golds with the team of the stars and stripes.

Subscribe here to the EL PAÍS América

and receive all the key information on current affairs in the region