terrorist state. vladimir putin continuing his crimes against humanity. thank you. arthel: the white house is ready to make a prisoner stop. offering notorious arms dealer and exchange for paul and britney greiner. the so-called merchant of death. the secretary of state anthony abe lincoln is urging to accept the deal. i urge for him to move forward without proposal. i will not characterize his response and i cannot give you an assessment of whether i think it is any more or less likely. dan hoffman is here to weigh in on this. a station chief that spent five years in moscow. dan, are britney greiner and paul coming home? is this prisoner swap going to happen?
tonight, tense negotiations continue between the u.s. and russia over proposed prisoner swap. late this afternoon, the white house slammed an apparent russian counterproposal asking for more than just the release of the arms dealer nicknamed the merchant of death. cbs catherine herridge has more. repr: wata antony blinken told reporters he urged russia s foreign minister in strong terms to make a deal that would bring home two americans detained there. we had a frank and direct conversation. i pressed the kremlin to accept the substantial proposal that we put forth on the release of paul whelan and brittney griner. reporter: he made no mention of a potential and controversial prisoner swap. former marine, paul whelan, who was arrested in 2018 on eps nawnl charges, and w.n.b.a. star, brittney griner, who recently pleaded guilty to bringing c cannabis derive.
table, release these two americans. i think it will take time but russia will respond. the name merchant of death would make you wonder why the u.s. would make a deal involving him. what s the argument behind the idea that this is a bad idea? well, he s, you know i m sorry, the concern is you re creating a big change in the past five years is in the past the majority of americans kidnapped abroad was taken by extremist groups. i was kidnapped by the taliban. that has changed. today the majority of american kidnaps overseas are being obtained by authoritarian governments, by russia, iran, venezuela. the danger is this is the new pattern, that governments will take americans hostage and use them as leverage against the united states. i think what the u.s. needs to do is develop a long-term