Nick Kyrgios has slammed the “disgusting” behavior of some tennis fans, after video circulated on social media of Daniil Medvedev being heckled after his second round loss to the Australian in Montreal.
Key points:
Video showed Daniil Medvedev being called a “loser” by fans as he walked towards the locker room
On social media, Nick Kyrgios said fans needed to “show some respect” to the number one men’s player
Medvedev said he had felt compelled to stop and talk to the fans because, “when someone mocks me, I’ll respond”
In a video re-tweeted by Kyrgios, Medvedev is shown being called a “loser” as he walks towards the locker room with security.
Medvedev then stops, turning and speaking with the fan, as someone shouts “you respect us and we respect you.”
Others can be heard imploring the fan to apologise.
On Twitter, Kyrgios labeled the fan’s behavior as “disgusting”.
“This is the best we have in the sport, fans need to show some respect.”
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The interaction came after Kyrgios had defeated the Russian world number one at the ATP’s Montreal Masters, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 6-2.
At a press conference for the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, Medvedev said he had felt compelled to approach the spectator.
“When someone mocks me, I’ll respond,” he said.
“It would be bad to let people shout bad things at me and just keep walking. I will ask what his problem is.”
Daniil Medvedev responded to questions about the incident at a press conference for the Western and Southern Open.(Getty Images: Matthew Stockman)
Medvedev said he had also talked to the father of the fan who had called him a “loser”.
“The father of the guy said something to me also — I say: ‘Educate your kid’,” Medvedev said.
“This is one of the first times it has happened to me. It doesn’t really happen a lot.”
Medvedev implied that abuse from fans was much more common online than in real life.
“On social media [insults] are a bit out of control,” he added.
Kyrgios eventually lost in the quarter-finals of the Montreal Masters to Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz.
Hurkacz, the number eight seed, won 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (5-7), 6-1.
The Australian had previously won 15 of his last 16 matches, and finished runner-up at Wimbledon.
It’s 18 years since a Chinese ambassador last took up an invitation to appear at the National Press Club in Canberra. That was five ambassadors ago.
Two years ago, the deputy head of mission, Wang Xining, turned up to spar with Australian journalists. He was combative but could also make his point from him by quoting Shakespeare, and rarely went beyond the official party line. After all, he wasn’t Beijing’s top diplomat in town.
It’s a long time since China’s most authoritative voice in Canberra had agreed to front the press. Until yesterday.
Ambassador Xiao Qian didn’t come with poetic quotes or clever lines that could be interpreted one way or another. This was raw and revealing.
In his prepared remarks, Xiao made a token effort to encourage further progress in repairing ties.
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There were references to how “friendly” relations had been over the past 50 years. There were reminders of how much trade has grown (and how relevant Australia has become on China economically).
Once the questions began, however, it became very clear just how uncompromising China would be on the core issues causing such difficulty in the relationship, particularly the big one — Taiwan.
Hope for change… and a reality check
The change of government in Australia raised some hope of a relationship reset. The two countries’ defense ministers met, followed by the foreign ministers. This was more dialogue than had occurred in years.
Then came Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and a reality check.
China’s extraordinary military reaction, involving ballistic missiles, fighter jets and warships, prompted condemnation from the United States, Japan, Australia and others. This, in turn, prompted condemnation from Beijing, urging everyone to butt out of its “internal” affairs.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen during a trip to the island last week.(Taiwan Presidential Office)
At the Press Club podium in Canberra, Xiao defended the show of military might, saying Pelosi’s visit had “compelled” China to respond.
He suggested the people of Taiwan wanted reunification with China, ignoring numerous opinion polls which he said were “misleading”. Fake news, as Donald Trump might say.
China would use “all necessary means” to bring Taiwan back to the fold and “you can use your imagination” as to what that might involve. Of course, no-one really needs to use their imagination, after the military display of the past week.
In case there was any doubt, the ambassador said there was “no room for us to compromise” on Taiwan.
One of the most revealing moments came in response to a question about what would follow Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland.
Once that happened, Xiao said: “There might be a process for the people in Taiwan to have a correct understanding of China about the motherland.”
A process to “correct understanding” sounds a lot like the “re-education” forced upon the Uyghur people, even if the ambassador rejected that particular phrase.
Xiao began his posting in January, at the height of a deep and bitter stand-off between Australia and China.(AAP: Dan Himbrechts)
The differences run deep
On the detention of Australian citizens Cheng Lei and Yang Hengjun, China’s ambassador insisted “their basic rights are protected, so don’t worry about that”. Those “basic rights” apparently don’t involve any transparency around the charges, trial or potential sentences facing the Australians. The Australian government remains deeply concerned.
On the trade sanctions China has imposed on Australian exports, the ambassador preferred not to call them “sanctions”, but he did signal some willingness to negotiate their removal, as long as Australia was willing to overturn its ban on Huawei.
There was a spray at the Australian media for not being more “positive” in its coverage of China, yet no sign Australian journalists would be allowed back into the country to report freely.
And there was no real attempt to explain why China was refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, given its repeated calls for everyone else to respect sovereignty. It’s “complicated”, it was all the ambassador would offer.
Over the course of nearly 90 minutes on stage, Xiao made it clear why the relationship with Australia was so strained. The differences over Taiwan, trade, the detention of Australian citizens and Putin’s actions in Ukraine are profound. There will be no easy resolution.
Back in 2004, the last Chinese ambassador to address the Press Club, Fu Ying, raised Beijing’s concerns about any move towards independence in Taiwan, but wasn’t talking about departing from the status quo. She certainly wasn’t talking about forcing re-unification using “all necessary means”.
And as for China’s relationship with Australia at the time, Fu was optimistic “our two countries have no fundamental conflict of interest.”
Much has changed in the 18 years between ambassadors turning up at the Press Club.
David Speers is the host of Insiders, which airs on ABC TV at 9am on Sunday or on ABC iview.
US authorities have obtained a warrant to seize a Russian oligarch’s private plane, valued at over $90 million, for violating US sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Airbus A319-100 aircraft, authorities say, is owned by Andrei Skoch, a member of Russia’s State Duma and a billionaire who made his fortune through a stake in a conglomerate in the metals and mining industry. Skoch has been on the US sanctions list since 2018 for Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the eastern region of Ukraine. The plane is believed to be in Kazakhstan, authorities said.
Skoch is the latest Russian oligarch to have one of his luxury assets in the sights of US authorities, who launched a campaign to seize valuable property of those close to the Kremlin in hope of pressing an end to the war.
In June, US authorities announced a judge approved a warrant for the seizure of two of Roman Abramovich’s private plans, valued at more than $400 million. In May, the US took possession of a $300 million super yacht called the Amadea, which is owned by Suleiman Kerimov. And in April, authorities seized at a port in Spain the $90 million yacht Tango belonging to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Monday, a federal judge authorized a seizure warrant from a special agent with the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, which traced the plane to Skoch through a series of shell companies allegedly intended to shield his ownership.
Authorities allege Skoch violated US sanctions by using US dollars to pay the plane’s registration fees to Aruban authorities and pay insurance premiums on the Airbus that passed through US financial institutions. The $113,180 in registration payments and $284,459 in insurance premiums passed through the US banking system without a license to allow payment on sanctioned entities.
The seizure warrant notes that, in addition to the plane, Skoch owns a yacht named the Madame Gu, a helicopter, and a villa at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Seychelles. Those assets are not authorized for seizure. Authorities need to demonstrate that sanctions were violated, such as by money transferring through the US banking system, to seize property.
Prosecutors have creatively used insurance premiums and registration payments to identify assets for seizure since most yachts and plans can’t operate unless they are insured. Since the US, UK and the European Union announced broad sanctions against Russian elites, several insurance companies stopped doing business with sanctioned individuals.
We’ve all heard about the skyrocketing price of oil at the pump, but did you know there’s another oil crisis?
At the helm of a deep fryer, Teresa Paolini is right across this issue.
A few years ago, her family-owned takeaway shop in Melbourne used to be able to buy her preferred cottonseed oil blend for less than $40 a drum.
“Now it’s up to $60,” Ms Paolini says.
The latest consumer price index (CPI) data just showed a 14 per cent rise in the price of cooking oil in the past year. The only other sector of food that’s gone up by more is fruit and vegetables.
Indirectly, analysts say, the cooking oil crunch is now likely to hit many other parts of the food chain.
That’s because it is such a fundamental staple ingredient. Edible oil is in everything from margarine through to hummus and baked goods, and there is only so much of a price hike that manufacturers through to takeaway shops can absorb.
“We’ve had to put our prices up about 50 cents on each item,” Ms Paolini says.
And it’s not just fried chips.
Teresa Paolini has bumped prices at her takeaway shop in Melbourne because cooking oil has gone up.(ABC News: Chris LePage)
In bad news for beauty, vegetable oils are a core ingredient in moisturizer and lipstick.
The latest CPI data shows personal care items already went up almost 5 per cent in a year. One company that develops and manufactures cosmetics is tipping that inflation will escalate by up to 15 per cent by 2023, due to vegetable oil prices.
As well as price hikes, the situation is also creating headaches for food labelling.
One of Australia’s biggest food manufacturers, Goodman Fielder, has just announced that it is having to replace some of the sunflower oil in its well-known mayonnaise Praise with canola oil.
That’s how far-reaching the issue has become.
What’s driving the cooking oil crunch?
Just like petroleum and gas, vegetable oil is a globally traded commodity that follows international pricing.
Most of this year’s headlines about the cooking oil crunch have centered around the war in Ukraine. Both it and Russia are some of the biggest producers of sunflower oil, and the war has seen their exports largely curtailed.
“[Edible oil] prices really escalated very quickly this year as a result of the invasion,” Rabobank’s senior commodities analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon told ABC News.
However, sunflower oil is not one of the most-consumed edible oils globally, and the price pressures go far beyond the war in Ukraine.
“Prior to that, we were already seeing prices that were double the five-year average,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
The three most-widely consumed oils globally are canola, palm and soybean.
Before the war, Ms Kalisch Gordon said, canola supply was already being hit by drought in key producers, including Canada.
Meanwhile, soybeans saw extra demand from China, which bought up beans to rebuild their pig herds after an outbreak of swine fever.
“On top of that, we had a disappointing harvest of soybeans out of Brazil and more broadly across South America, including Paraguay,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
Then there were issues during the pandemic with worker shortages in Indonesia and Malaysia, which produces much of the world’s palm oil.
“They just weren’t able to get the harvest out of the plantations,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
The other oil crisis, petroleum, didn’t help.
Ms Kalisch Gordon said fossil fuels were now so expensive, that markets were turning to edible oils to make biodiesel instead.
“We’ve had production increasing at a slower rate than consumption increase. We’ve got a strong biodiesel market that is growing internationally,” she said.
As this all happened, some countries — including Turkey, Indonesia and Argentina — put export bans on their edible oils to ensure their own populations had enough of these vital ingredients.
“Really, we have found ourselves with a litany of issues feeding into this that wouldn’t be expected normally,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
“The higher prices for soybean, palm oil and canola have led to higher prices or costs across the entire complex, including for olive oil and cottonseed.”
Peter Fitzgerald has never seen price hikes on edible oil like those he is currently dealing with at Cookers.(ABC News: Chris LePage)
Cookers is one of Australia’s biggest vegetable oil distributors.
The national company buys canola and olive oil from refineries across Australia and overseas, including recently from Ukraine until the invasion. It is subject to whatever prices its suppliers pass on.
“We’ve seen prices in the last two years virtually double,” the company’s managing director Peter Fitzgerald said.
“It’s something we’ve never seen in our industry.
“And we don’t know where that’s going to end up”
Cookers is pushing these price hikes onto its customers, which include takeaway chains and major food manufacturers that use vegetable oil in everything from hummus to margarine.
“They’re all addressing this with the supermarkets currently,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“If you look at a lot of packaging, oil is such a large component in so many foods.
“I think that you’ll see that as this flushes through, that it’s going to continue price increases at the customer level.”
As well as food staples, vegetable oil is also a core ingredient in many of life’s little luxuries, including makeup.
The price of cosmetics is also set to rise due to the vegetable oil crisis.(Getty Images: Andreas Rentz)
Rohan Widdison runs local cosmetics developer and manufacturer New Laboratories.
He’s forecasting price hikes on everything from moisturizer to lipstick, largely in part due to the extreme increases he is seeing on oils such as almond.
“We’ve held off passing pricing on to a lot of clients. But now what we’re seeing is elements where it’s just impossible to hold off,” Mr Widdison said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t see increases [at the consumer level] that are going to range from 8 to 15 per cent in the coming year.”
Mr Widdison isn’t so sure the global price rises all come down to supply and demand, either.
“At a certain point in time, then the question really becomes: Is it the market price? Or is it really just profit-taking?” I have asked.
He said the issue was bigger than just a moisturizer.
“There’s no question that we should be looking at food security before cosmetics,” he said.
“If you use palm oil, for example, I’m fully supportive of the Indonesian government protecting that essential commodity for domestic use.”
The impact of oil prices in poorer nations is something the World Food Program and the World Bank are concerned about too.
In good news, the price spikes on soybean and palm oil do appear to have gone past their peak.
Ms Kalisch Gordon said that improvement had come as growing conditions improve in the regions hit by drought.
Most of the markets such as Indonesia — that put temporary export bans on their oils — have now lifted them.
And global markets also appear to be pricing in decreases after the resumption of Black Sea exports.
However, the situation remains volatile.
For instance, just this month, there has been fresh talk of olive oil shortages after another drought in Spain.
“We don’t expect prices to drop or reduce in their volatility substantially in the near term,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
“So this isn’t going to play out quickly.”
“I don’t see [prices] returning to the five year-averages of pricing across this complex that we saw prior to COVID.”
As the new normal hits, New Laboratories is looking into substituting some edible oils for synthetics in their cosmetics.
“That’s probably taking the ethical and responsible approach in this situation, rather than complaining about price,” Mr Widdison said.
Meanwhile, Peter Fitzgerald at Cookers is also calling for edible oils to be prioritized for food ahead of biodiesel.
“I think we’ve got to be careful,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“For me, there’s a moral dilemma about food versus fuel.”
And Ms Paolini is stocking up on olive oil for her takeaway shop, just in case.
“My husband and I just went and bought a few vats,” she said. “I like my olive oil.”
Former US Ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson predicted Sunday that US citizens Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, who are imprisoned in Russia, will be freed in a “two-for-two” prisoner swap with Moscow.
“I’m optimistic. I think she’s going to be free,” Richardson said of WNBA star Griner on ABC’s “This Week.”
“There’s gonna be a prisoner swap, though, and I think it’ll be two-for-two, involving Paul Whelan. We can’t forget him.”
Griner was sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony for drug possession and smuggling, after pleading guilty to drug possession charges. Whelan, a former US Marine, is three years into a 16-year sentence on spying charges, which he and the US deny.
Richardson dodged questions about whether educator Marc Fogel, who is facing 14 years for drug possession and smuggling, would also be included in swap talks.
“All of these that are wrongfully detained need to come home,” Richardson said.
He added that his foundation, The Richardson Center, is involved in talks about the release of three other Americans held by Russia, but that he was a “catalyst” for what would ultimately be a government-to-government agreement.
The Biden administration reportedly floated a potential prisoner swap last month in which Griner and Whelan would be released in exchange for convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout. Officials have publicly confirmed that they offered an exchange but have not explicitly said if it involved Bout.
President Biden on Friday said he’s “hopeful” about Griner’s situation, though White House officials declined to say if there were specific developments that led him to feel that way.
Richardson on Sunday commended Biden for considering the exchange with Bout, though he said “I would have done it quietly.”
“Our objective should be, despite prisoner exchanges that are not popular, to bring American hostages home. Some of these prisoner exchanges are not good. The optics are not good. But we have to do it sometimes,” he said.
Former US Ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson predicted Sunday that US citizens Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, who are imprisoned in Russia, will be freed in a “two-for-two” prisoner swap with Moscow.
“I’m optimistic. I think she’s going to be free,” Richardson said of WNBA star Griner on ABC’s “This Week.”
“There’s gonna be a prisoner swap, though, and I think it’ll be two-for-two, involving Paul Whelan. We can’t forget him.”
Griner was sentenced last week to nine years in a penal colony for drug possession and smuggling, after pleading guilty to drug possession charges. Whelan, a former US Marine, is three years into a 16-year sentence on spying charges, which he and the US deny.
Richardson dodged questions about whether educator Marc Fogel, who is facing 14 years for drug possession and smuggling, would also be included in swap talks.
“All of these that are wrongfully detained need to come home,” Richardson said.
He added that his foundation, The Richardson Center, is involved in talks about the release of three other Americans held by Russia, but that he was a “catalyst” for what would ultimately be a government-to-government agreement.
The Biden administration reportedly floated a potential prisoner swap last month in which Griner and Whelan would be released in exchange for convicted Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout. Officials have publicly confirmed that they offered an exchange but have not explicitly said if it involved Bout.
President Biden on Friday said he’s “hopeful” about Griner’s situation, though White House officials declined to say if there were specific developments that led him to feel that way.
Richardson on Sunday commended Biden for considering the exchange with Bout, though he said “I would have done it quietly.”
“Our objective should be, despite prisoner exchanges that are not popular, to bring American hostages home. Some of these prisoner exchanges are not good. The optics are not good. But we have to do it sometimes,” he said.
WNBA star Brittney Griner was convicted of cannabis possession and smuggling in Russia on Thursday and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
While it’s not clear exactly where she will be serving out her unusually harsh sentence — which she is appealing — Griner may return to the female penal facility where she has spent the last six months outside of Moscow.
The prison, dubbed Correctional Colony No. 1 or IK-1, is no Stalin-era gulag but seems to bleak at best.
The facility is a former orphanage, rebuilt and converted ten years ago into a pretrial detention center and prison where women live out their sentences, the New York Times reported last month.
Located in the village of Novoye Grishino, the overwhelmingly gray and artificially lit prison has its own sewing factory and Russian Orthodox church inside.
WNBA star Brittney Griner has spent the last six months locked up in Correctional Colony No. 1.AFP via Getty ImagesThe prison includes a pretrial detention center and area for female offenders to serve out their sentences.DmitrovTVThe prison was once home to Israeli-American Naama Issachar, who was detained by Russian police in 2019.AFP via Getty Images
Video footage of the facility shows towering gray walls topped with barbed wire and gives a glimpse inside of the sewing factory where dozens of women appear to be working.
A large, rusting statue of Lenin sits in a snow-filled courtyard.
Journalist Yekaterina Kalugina visited Griner while she was at the facility, and told The Times that each day is repetitive and monotonous for the Phoenix Mercury Center.
Each morning inmates wake up, and eat a basic meal in her cell, Kalugina said. They are then permitted to walk around the courtyard. They then spend the rest of the day either reading books or watching Russian television.
A large statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin sits in the prison courtyardAFP via Getty ImagesCorrectional Colony No. 1 was converted from an orphanage roughly 10 years ago.AFP via Getty Images
Uniquely, the cells have a private washroom but the inmates are only allowed to shower twice a week, she said. They are permitted to order food online and keep food in an available refrigerator.
The prison was also formerly home to Israeli-American Naama Issachar, who was arrested in 2019 and sentenced to over seven years in prison after Russian police said they found marijuana in her luggage while she was connecting flights in Moscow. Vladimir Putin later pardoned her for drug trafficking in 2020.
Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in Russian prison on Thursday.POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesGriner was convicted of cannabis possession and drug smuggling.REUTERS
Issachar was detained as a political pawn between Russia and Israel, just as Griner is with the United States now.
Yaffa Issachar, Naama’s mother, told The Times her daughter spent three months at IK-1. She said filling out the paperwork to enter the prison to visit Naama could take up to four hours followed by a tedious inspection of each item of food she had brought.
She was treated relatively well, her mother said, and was allowed to visit from a rabbi once a week. Issachar recalled the statue of Lenin as well as the sound of guard dogs barking.
Issachar’s mother told The Times her daughter sobbed when she heard about Griner and is worried that as a gay woman she could be subjected to much harsher treatment in conservative Russia.
A Russian billionaire suing Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister claims sanctions imposed over the invasion of the Ukraine have caused him severe reputational damage.
Key points:
Alexander Abramov is the chairman of steel company Evraz and is estimated to have a net worth of over $6 billion
The Morrison government imposed financial and travel sanctions on 67 individuals in April
Mr Abramov says no other country has imposed sanctions against him
Steel mogul Alexander Abramov launched legal action against senator Penny Wong after the former government’s April sanctioning of 67 Russian elites and oligarchs over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
His lawyer Ron Merkel QC told the Federal Court on Friday the sanctions caused severe reputational harm and the legal consequences had led to continuing financial losses.
Mr Abramov, who co-founded Russia’s largest steel producer, Evraz, wants the sanctions removed, arguing they are unique to Australia because no other country has placed similar bans on him.
“Our real point here is the approach the minister has taken is misconceived,” Mr Merkel said.
“Australia’s sanctions have also impacted Mr Abramov’s dealings in New Zealand.”
He said the case was unusual as public announcements by former foreign minister Marise Payne explaining her decision would form part of the suit.
On April 7, Senator Payne announced the government had decided to impose “targeted financial sanctions and travel bans” on 67 individuals “for their role in Russia’s unprovoked, unjust and illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.
Former Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced sanctions on 67 Russian elites in April
Those sanctioned included Russian military, business and government officials.
Senator Wong is represented by barrister Brendan Lim.
The federal government was considering an application to prevent the public release of some information in the court documents, Mr Lim said.
The matter will return before Justice Susan Kenny on August 26.
Examination of the substance in vape cartridges WNBA star Brittney Griner’s carried in February at a Moscow airport did not comply with Russian law, a defense expert testified Tuesday as her drug-smuggling trial in Russia continues amid US efforts to negotiate a prisoner swap for her release .
Among the violations is that results of the examination do not contain the amount of THC in the substance investigators tested, Griner’s lawyer, Maria Blagovolina, said after the hearing.
“The examination does not comply with the law in terms of the completeness of the study and does not comply with the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure,” forensic chemist Dmitry Gladyshev testified for the defense during the roughly two-hour session.
The defense also interrogated prosecution expert Alexander Korablyov, who examined Griner’s cartridges taken from her luggage.
Griner’s appearance in the Khimki city courthouse marked her seventh hearing as Russian prosecutors accuse her of trying to smuggle less than 1 gram of cannabis oil in her luggage. She has pleaded guilty to drug charges – a decision her lawyers hope will result in a less severe sentence – even as the US State Department maintains she is wrongfully detained, and she faces up to 10 years in prison.
Supporters of the two-time Olympic gold medalist and Phoenix Mercury center who plays in Russia during the WNBA offseason have called for her release over fears she is being used as a political pawn amid Russia’s war on Ukraine. US officials face immense pressure from Griner’s family, lawmakers and the professional basketball community to bring her home, and Griner wrote to President Joe Biden pleading with him to do everything in his power to facilitate her release from her.
The 31-year-old sat Tuesday inside the defendant’s cage in the courtroom. The charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Moscow, Elizabeth Rood, attended Tuesday’s hearing and afterward said the US would “continue to support Miss Griner through every step of this process and as long as it takes to bring her home to the United States safely.”
Griner’s next hearing is set for Thursday.
At trial, Griner has testified that she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis and had no intention of bringing the drug into Russia. Following her arrest of her in February, she was tested for drugs and was clean, her lawyers previously said.
Amid public pressure and after months of internal debate, the Biden administration proposed a prisoner swap with Russia, offering to release a convicted Russian arms trafficker in exchange for Griner and another American detainee, Paul Whelan, people briefed on the matter have told CNN.
Russian officials countered the US offer, multiple sources familiar with the discussions have said, requesting in addition to arms dealer Viktor Bout the US also include a convicted murderer who was formerly a colonel with the Russian spy agency, Vadim Krasikov.
US officials did not accept the request as a legitimate counteroffer, the sources told CNN, in part because the proposal was sent through an informal backchannel. Krasikov’s release would also be complicated because he is in German custody.
“It’s a bad faith attempt to avoid a very serious offer and proposal that the United States has put forward and we urge Russia to take that offer seriously,” Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby told CNN, later adding, “We very much want to see Brittney and Paul come home to their families where they belong.”
Meantime, Griner’s trial carries on, with her legal team expected to continue questioning more witnesses before moving to closing arguments, during which the lawyers will elaborate on why they believe Griner’s detention was handled improperly. Closing arguments are expected in coming weeks.
Griner’s attorneys have already laid out some arguments claiming the basketball player’s detention was not handled correctly after she was arrested February 17 by personnel at the Sheremetyevo International Airport.
Her detention, search and arrest were “improper,” Alexander Boykov, one of her lawyers, said last week, noting more details would be revealed during closing arguments.
After she was stopped in the airport, Griner was made to sign documents that she did not fully understand, she testified. At first, she said, she was using Google translate on her phone from her but was later moved to another room where her phone from her was taken and she was made to sign more documents.
No lawyer was present, she testified, and her rights were not explained to her. Those rights would include access to an attorney once she was detained and the right to know what she was suspected of. Under Russian law, she should have been informed of her rights within three hours of her arrest.
In her testimony, Griner “explained to the court that she knows and respects Russian laws and never intended to break them,” Blagovolina – a partner at Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin & Partners – said after last week’s hearing.
The detained player testified she was aware of Russian laws and had no intention of bringing the cannabis oil into the country, noting she was in a rush and “stress packing.”
Griner confirmed she has a doctor’s prescription for medical cannabis, Blagovolina said, which she uses to treat knee pain and joint inflammation.
“We continue to insist that, by indiscretion, in a hurry, she packed her suitcase and did not pay attention to the fact that substances allowed for use in the United States ended up in this suitcase and arrived in the Russian Federation,” Boykov, of Moscow Legal Center, has said.
Griner’s family, supporters and WNBA teammates continue to express messages of solidarity and hope as they wait for the conclusion of the trial and look forward to the potential of her release.
Before trial proceedings last week, the WNBA players union tweeted, “Dear BG … It’s early in Moscow. Our day is ending and yours is just beginning. Not a day, not an hour goes by that you’re not on our minds & in our hearts.”
This story has been updated with additional developments Tuesday.
correction: A prior version of this story missed Brittney Griner’s first name.
A former high-ranking advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin — who fled the country after the invasion of Ukraine — has fallen seriously ill and was in intensive care Sunday, a report said.
Anatoly Chubais was suffering from a neurological disorder at a European hospital, according to Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian television personality and friend of Chubais.
Sobchak, on Telegram, spoke with Chubais’ wife and was told he was suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Guillain-Barre occurs when a person’s immune system harms the body’s nerves, which can lead to muscle weakness and even paralysis.
Chubais, 67, had grown numb in his hands and legs. Specialists in “chemical protection suits” probed the room where he suddenly got sick, according to the New York Times.
Chubais did not explain why he stepped down from his post in March, though the assumption is it was due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. His high-profile resignation was one of many following the start of the war.
Chubais’ wife shared he was suffering from Guillain-Barre syndrome.Getty Images/Daniel BerehulakChubais served as a former high-ranking advisor to Vladimir Putin.TVK6/east2westnews
He most recently was part of Putin’s envoy to international organizations on sustainable development and is well-known in the country after holding many top-level posts since the early 1990s.
His illness raises suspicion considering other Kremlin opponents have mysteriously and suddenly gotten sick in the past, most famously Alexei Navalny, who was apparently poisoned in 2020.
