MOSCOW, May 31. Russia and the United States, this is an extremely sensitive issue, State Secretary, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Yevgeny Ivanov said in an interview with RIA Novosti. closed nature, the contracting parties prefer not to advertise it. This is the very case when media support can be harmful, not beneficial,» Ivanov said, answering a question about the possibility of new prisoner exchanges between the Russian Federation and the United States, including Victor Bout and Paul Whelan. At the end of April, an exchange of US citizen Trevor Reid, previously convicted in the Russian Federation, for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko took place in Turkey. Against the backdrop of these events, speculation intensified on the possible exchange of another Russian — Viktor Bout, who was arrested in Thailand at the American request in 2008 as a result of a provocative operation by American intelligence services and taken to the United States, where he is currently serving a prison sentence. Most often as candidates for exchange for Viktor Bout in the Russian and American media, the American basketball player Brittney Griner, who is under investigation in Russia on charges of trying to smuggle drugs across the border, and Paul Whelan, who was sentenced in the Russian Federation to 16 years in prison on charges of espionage, appear. However, earlier Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Ryabkov told RIA Novosti that there were no grounds for including Whelan in the lists for a possible exchange. relations between the USSR and the USA
