The Kremlin said Friday that it's open to talking about a possible prisoner exchange involving American basketball star Brittney Griner but strongly warned Washington against publicizing the issue.

Asked at the White House Friday about the prospects of securing Griner's release, President Joe Biden said: "I'm hopeful ...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke last week to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, urging him to accept a deal under which Griner and Paul Whelan, an American jailed in Russia on espionage charges, would go free.

Lavrov and Blinken were both in Cambodia on Friday for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Lavrov told reporters that Blinken didn't try to contact him while they were attending the ASEAN meeting.

Lavrov said Moscow was "ready to discuss" a prisoner swap but that the topic should only be discussed via a dedicated Russia-U.S.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the same point more harshly, saying "the U.S.

proposal have said it envisions trading Griner and Whelan for a notorious Russian arms trader, Viktor Bout.

Blinken said Friday that her conviction and sentence "compounds the injustice that has been done to her.".

On Thursday, Biden denounced the Russian judge's verdict and sentence as "unacceptable" and said he would continue working to bring Griner and Whelan home.