Former Marine Paul Whelan, who has been jailed in Russia for five years, said he feels “abandoned” by the United States.
In December 2018, Whelan was arrested on espionage charges and later sentenced to 16 years in prison. Both his family and the U.S. government maintain Whelan was unjustly accused and convicted.
But Washington has successfully negotiated two separate prisoner swaps with the Kremlin since Whelan was detained, and neither has included him.
"I know the U.S. [has] all sorts of proposals, but it's not what the Russians want,” Whelan told the BBC in an interview published Wednesday. “They go back and forth, like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.”
He called the situation “extremely stressful,” adding that he feels the U.S. has “basically abandoned me here.”
Whelan told the outlet that, during Donald Trump’s presidency, Moscow wanted to trade him for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout — who was released in an exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner last December— but a deal was never made.
Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine from Texas who was detained in Moscow, was also released and returned to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia in May 2022.
Whelan’s plea comes as Russia increasingly arrests Americans in the country. The latest high-profile case involved Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was also jailed on espionage charges and the U.S. has been trying to free.
The Biden administration proposed a deal to free both men in exchange for many Russian nationals detained on espionage charges abroad, CNN reported in early December. At the time, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that “we have made clear all along that we do not want to leave either one of them behind.”
The State Department and National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
