Four years later, brother speaks out on Paul Whelan's imprisonment
Whelan, who had been in Russia for a wedding, was caught by the FSB “while on a spy mission,” the agency’s public relations center said in a statement at the time, though he and the U.S. government refuted the claims. The Biden administration continues to consider Whelan"wrongfully detained" while engaging in negotiations with the Kremlin to bring him home."Milestones are always hard," his brother David Whelan told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
The White House said last week that"there are active conversations" ongoing between the administration and their Russian counterparts surrounding Whelan's freedom, though U.S. officials have also said that the Kremlin views him differently from other Americans the U.S. has sought to swap for due to the espionage charge.
President Joe Biden agreed to prisoner exchanges with the Kremlin this year, though Whelan was left out of both of them.
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