Former governor of New Mexico and United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, will travel to Moscow, Russia to try to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Per ABC News, Bill Richardson reportedly assisted in the February prisoner exchange that freed US Marine Trevor Reed from captivity in Russia.
According to Mickey Bergman, executive director of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, Richardson will travel to Russia in the hopes of obtaining the release of both Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan. Whelan is a former US Marine who has been held in Russia on espionage charges for more than three years, and Richardson is representing both families.
Bergman said in a statement that both families have asked Bill Richardson for assistance in getting their loved ones released. “What I can say (and is publicly known) is both the Whelan and Griner families have asked us to help with the release of their loved ones,” Bergman wrote.
The WNBA star’s wife, Cherelle Griner confirmed she’d requested Richardson’s assistance and was encouraged in a statement released by Brittney Griner’s agent Lindsay Colas.
“We asked the Richardson Center to help, and I’m encouraged that he might be going.”
While in Chicago on July 8, Reverend Al Sharpton also called for Griner’s release. Griner had been playing for a Russian team during the offseason when she was arrested in February at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after vape cartridges were discovered in her luggage.
“She didn’t see Russian fans any different than American fans,” said Sharpton. “She saw all of them as fans that deserve the right to see women play basketball.”
Griner pled guilty on July 7, stating that she unintentionally brought the cartridges into the country.
“Bring Brittney home, bring her home to her wife. We are going to stand with her until you do,” Sharpton said. “We also know there ought to be a place where conflicts stop and where the politics stop and the international rivalry stops and some people can operate above that.”
Bill Richardson is expected to travel to Moscow in the coming weeks to negotiate a deal
