INSIGHT

U.S. Citizen Paul Whelan Appears in Russian Penal Colony Video

His brother said it was the first time he’d seen what Whelan looks like in years.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan appeared in a rare video broadcast on Monday showing him alongside other inmates locked up in a Russian penal colony. Whelan was convicted on spying charges and sentenced to 16 years imprisonment in 2020, with the Biden administration considering him “wrongfully detained.” In the clip shown on Kremlin-backed news channel Russia Today, Whelan was shown wearing a black prisoner’s uniform inside the prison using a sewing machine and eating alongside fellow prisoners. The footage also shows Whelan telling a questioner purportedly with the broadcaster that he “can’t do an interview.” “Today was the first time I’ve seen what he really looks like since June 2020,” his brother David Whelan told Reuters. He said that Russia Today went to the prison in May to film Paul, and that prison workers retaliated against him when he’d refused to participate.