Issues of possible prisoner swap between Russia, US can only be ‘resolved in silence’: Kremlin

ISTANBUL

The Kremlin on Wednesday said that issues regarding a possible prisoner exchange between Russia and the US can only be “resolved in silence.”

“I wanted to remind you of the words of the President (Vladimir Putin) in his recent interview that these things love silence. They can only be resolved in silence,” Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov told reporters in a press briefing.


Peskov went on to say that it is consequently in the interests of Russia, the US, and the defendants that everything regarding this issue is “decided in silence.”

The spokesman’s remarks came in response to a question regarding comments made by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday that he talked by phone with US national Paul Whelan imprisoned in Russia.

In June 2020, Moscow City Court sentenced Whelan, a former US Marine, to 16 years in a high-security prison, announcing him guilty of espionage. Whelan declared himself innocent and said he will appeal against the sentence.


The Federal Security Service detained him in Moscow in December 2018.


Peskov further denied claims that Russia approached the US with proposals to “freeze” the conflict in Ukraine.

He also refused to comment on the claims by Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence earlier in the day that it sank the Caesar Kunikov landing ship off the coast of Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014.


“This is still directly related to the course of a special military operation. Accordingly, this is the exclusive prerogative of the Ministry of Defense,” he said.