Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018, was supposed to be home by now.
Exactly one year ago, on Dec. 8, 2022, the Biden administration secured the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner, who had spent less than a year in a Russian prison on drug charges.
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With the fanfare of Griner’s release came renewed hope that the Biden administration could also secure a deal for Whelan, who had languished in prison for far longer over an espionage conviction that he and the U.S. government dispute.
But now, Whelan’s family wonders why they must continue to wait.
“I thought that after the last exchange, there was an awful lot of press from the White House, the U.S. government those first days after Dec. 8 last year, where they were immediately getting back to work, they were really going to come up with new ideas, they were immediately going to look for new ways to bring Paul home,” David Whelan, Paul’s brother, told the Washington Examiner. “And none of that really happened.”
Griner returned home last year in exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” Bout was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to 25 years in jail.
At the time, administration officials emphasized their continued work to free Paul Whelan, though they acknowledged that Russian officials view his crimes as more significant.
Paul Whelan was arrested in late 2018 while in Russia for a wedding and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2020 on an espionage charge, which he strongly denies.
Former President Donald Trump said in the days after the Griner swap that he turned down a deal during his presidency that would’ve secured Paul Whelan’s release in exchange for Bout, while President Joe Biden agreed to the Griner swap and one earlier in the year that also excluded Paul Whelan.
“I would ask President Biden to reflect on the words that he has already expressed to our family, which is that he is not going to walk away from Paul’s case and that he’s going to bring Paul home and ask him that he finally do so,” David Whelan added. “And to do so as quickly as possible.”
David Whelan’s comments come just days after State Department spokesman Matthew Miller acknowledged that Russia turned down a “new and significant proposal” in “recent weeks” that would’ve secured Paul Whelan’s release as well as that of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested earlier this year on espionage charges, like Paul Whelan years earlier.
“We have made clear all along we want — that we do not want to leave either one of them behind. We want to bring both Evan and Paul home,” Miller said. “They received the proposal. We know that they — let me just say they rejected it. This was not a case of them not having responded to us. They rejected the offer that was on the table.”
He did not provide details on what the proposal was, what it involved, or which U.S. and Russian officials communicated with one another given the sensitive nature of prisoner swap negotiations.
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Paul Whelan was assaulted in prison in late November, his brother previously said, explaining, “The prisoner hit Paul in the face, breaking Paul’s glasses in the process, and attempted to hit him a second time. Paul stood up to block the second hit, and other prisoners intervened to prevent the prisoner continuing to attack Paul.”
While Paul Whelan remains in a Russian prison, Bout won an election to serve in a regional legislature in Russia in September, and Griner has returned to her basketball career with the Phoenix Mercury.
