Paul Whelan
The former U.S. Marine’s lawyer said he is still being held at a penal colony, while Biden insisted Russia is taking a harder line on Whelan for “totally illegitimate reasons.”
The U.S. Marine couldn’t believe it when he was released from a Russian work-camp prison more than six years early.
One Kremlin insider told The Daily Beast that Putin would “most probably” trade ex-Marine Paul Whelan for Russia’s “Merchant of Death,” an arms trader jailed in the U.S.
The investor Michael Calvey and former U.S. Marines Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed could prove to be valuable bargaining chips for Russia under a Biden administration.
Now after 18 months of arrest, solitary confinement, and brutal surgery, Whelan is told he’s being sent away for 16 years. His lawyer says only a trade can get him out. But who?
Whelan says he knows the Judas who set him up, but there's no end in sight for his ordeal as the court keeps extending his detention.
In a Moscow court on Friday, accused spy Paul Whelan knew he’d get no relief from his imprisonment or help for his medical condition. He’s learned the ropes in the FSB’s prison.