MOSCOW (AP) 鈥 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that more U.S.-Russian prisoner exchanges are possible if Moscow and Washington find a compromise.
Putin spoke a day after Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout was swapped for WNBA star and two-time Olympian Brittney Griner.
Asked after a summit in Kyrgyzstan whether other prisoners could be swapped, Putin replied that 鈥渆verything is possible,鈥 noting that 鈥渃ompromises have been found鈥 that cleared the way for Thursday鈥檚 exchange of Griner for Bout.
鈥淲e aren鈥檛 refusing to continue this work in the future,鈥 the Russian leader said, making his first comments about the closely watched trade.
Despite negotiating for Griner's release, the most high-profile American jailed abroad, the U.S. failed to win freedom for another American, Paul Whelan. Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are baseless.
U.S. officials said they did not see an immediate path to bringing about Whelan鈥檚 release, saying Russia has treated his case differently because of the 鈥渟ham espionage鈥 charges against him. Still, they said they believe communication channels with the Russians remain open for negotiations about his freedom.
Putin said the U.S.-Russia talks that resulted in Thursday鈥檚 exchange didn鈥檛 touch on other subjects.
鈥淲hether this could set stage for a dialogue with the U.S. is a separate issue,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 set the task to move from those talks to something else, but they do create a certain atmosphere.鈥
On a similar note, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was Russian and U.S. intelligence agencies that agreed to exchange Bout for Griner and their contacts were focused exclusively on hammering out its specifics.
鈥淚t has no impact on the overall state of bilateral ties that looks sad,鈥 Peskov said in televised remarks.
Peskov said that 鈥渟pecial services may continue their work if necessary,鈥 and also noted the role of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in helping broker the swap.
Bout, dubbed the 鈥淢erchant of Death鈥 who provided arms for some of the world鈥檚 worst conflicts and spent over 14 years behind bars in the U.S., was seen in Russia as unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive U.S. sting operation.
The Russian state media hailed his release, carrying the footage of him talking to his family from a private jet following a swap at Abu Dhabi鈥檚 airport and then embracing his wife and his mother on a snowy tarmac in Moscow.
Speaking in an interview for RT channel with Maria Butina, who also served 18 months in a U.S. prison after being convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the United States, Bout said he was still struggling to control his emotions after his imprisonment.
He charged that the West鈥檚 long-held objective was to destroy Russia.
鈥淭he West believes that it has failed to finish us off when the Soviet Union began to collapse,鈥 Bout said. 鈥淎nd our efforts to live independently, be an independent power is a shock to them.鈥
