US President Joe Biden has said he has seen no movement from Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the release of US women’s basketball star Brittney Griner.
“Not Putin,” Biden said when asked if he had seen action in Griner’s case.
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday, Biden said he would be open to meeting Putin at the upcoming G20 summit in Indonesia if Putin was willing to discuss Griner’s release.
“I don’t plan to meet him. But for example, if he came to see me at the G20 and told me that I want to talk about Griner’s release, I would meet him. I mean, it would depend,” Biden said. Tapper said in the exclusive CNN interview.
Biden told reporters on Wednesday that recent Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure were brutal and “out of reach.”
What Russia says: A Kremlin aide responded to Biden by saying he had “no intention of meeting” Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying Wednesday that Moscow “never refuses negotiations and any useful international contact,” according to the news outlet. State RIA Novosti.
“We never push away an outstretched hand. If we feel and understand that a partner, for one reason or another, does not want to meet, we do not impose ourselves,” Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
When asked if Putin would attend the November G20 summit in Indonesia, Ushakov said he “still has plenty of time” to decide.
“As for the G20… There is still a long way to go, as well as other meetings (international forums in November), there is still plenty of time. Let’s wait and see,” he said, according to state media.
