U.S. officials to meet Russians on Paul Whelan case -White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Senior U.S. officials plan to have talks this week with Russian counterparts to discuss the case of Paul Whelan, an American imprisoned in Russia, days after attempts to gain his freedom were rebuffed by Moscow, the White House said on Monday.

The United States had sought but failed to persuade Russia to include Whelan in the deal that resulted in the release of WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner in exchange for the release of convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

“We will have an engagement with them this week,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. “We have had regular engagement of course along the way and the next conversation at a high level will take place this week.”

A source familiar with the situation has said Russia wants to gain the freedom of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian serving a life sentence in Germany for murder.

Sullivan said that “we have been working to figure out what it’s going to take to ultimately secure (Whelan’s) freedom” and on how to work with Russia to secure a deal.

What the Russians wanted to secure Whelan’s release “was not something we had to be able to give,” he said.

Sullivan said senior U.S. officials met virtually on Monday with Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, and assured her of President Joe Biden’s commitment to gaining her brother’s release.

He said conversations with Whelan’s family have been substantive.

“They have had a number of very good questions and also a number of suggestions that they have put forward,” he said.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Steve Holland, Doina Chiacu and Kanishka Singh in WashingtonEditing by Leslie Adler and Matthew Lewis)