Former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson Meeting with Russian Leadership to Discuss Brittney Griner

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: NurPhoto/NurPhoto/Getty; Kevin C. Cox/Getty

Richardson, who also served as the governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011, runs an organization that negotiates for prisoner and hostage releases calledThe Richardson Center for Global Engagement. He previously took part in negotiations between the U.S. and Russia that helped achieve a prisoner exchange thatfreed former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed from Russian custody in April.

Griner’s wife Cherelle told CNN, “We’ve asked Governor Richardson and the Richardson Center to help us, and have been working with them for a while. We are encouraged to hear that they are having meetings in Moscow.”

Richardson also represents another former Marine currently in Russia’s custody,Paul Whelan, who was arrested in Russia for alleged espionage in December 2019.

Brittney Griner.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty

According to CNN, a senior Biden administration official argued that anyone traveling “to Russia is going as a private citizen and they don’t speak for the US government.” Additionally, a spokesman for the Kremlin shot down reports of any meetings in Moscow. “There were no meetings in the Kremlin and I have nothing to tell you on this topic,“said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Moreover, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told the outlet there hadn’t been any contact with Richardson or the Richardson Center, and that the politician’s trip was “not coordinated in advance with the Embassy.”

RELATED VIDEO: Brittney Griner Is ‘Stressed’ in Russian Prison as She Awaits the Start of Her Appeal Hearings

“Our concern is that anything other than negotiating further through the established channel is likely to hinder the efforts that we have undertaken to see the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner,” Price added at a press conference, per CNN.

Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prisonon Aug. 4, and there have been few updates about her situation in the month since. Her legal teamhas filed an appeal to her sentence, but have yet to hear about a hearing start date. Meanwhile, Griner is waiting for news on the possible prisoner exchange.

(L-R) Maria Blagovolina, Brittney Griner and Alexander Boykov.EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/POOL/AFP via Getty

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A spokesperson for the State Department tells PEOPLE that “the U.S. government continues to urge Russia to release wrongfully detained Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan. As [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken said, ‘There was a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal.’ "

With no new updateson her next possible steps, “Brittney is stressed and very much concerned with the future,” her lawyer Maria Blagovolina, a partner at Rybalkin Gortsunyan Dyakin and Partners,recently told PEOPLE.

source: people.com