SOCHI, August 5. /TASS/. Exchanges of prisoners must not be discussed in the "megaphone diplomacy" way, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He told the media on Friday that Moscow would not use such methods itself and regarded such actions by Washington as erroneous.
"If we begin to discuss through the media some nuances related to exchanges, then these exchanges will never take place. The Americans have already committed such a mistake. They suddenly decided to solve such problems using the "megaphone diplomacy" method. It is not the way to go about this business. We will not make any comments," Peskov said.
In this way he answered the question at what stage the negotiations on this issue were at the moment and whether Russian businessman Viktor Bout might be exchanged, as follows from media speculations.
Peskov said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had already recalled that the presidents of the two countries raised this issue at a meeting in Geneva in June 2021.
"Certain mechanisms for a dialogue on this matter were agreed there. These mechanisms are in place, but their work will be called into question if this public discussion continues," Peskov warned.
Earlier, Washington offered Moscow to exchange Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a prison term in the US for arms trafficking, for basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced to a prison term for drugs trafficking, and Paul Whelan, convicted in Russia of spying. The exchange of prisoners was one of the topics discussed in a telephone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week. As the Russian side said afterwards, Lavrov urged his US counterpart to return to "quiet diplomacy" on this issue.