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US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced plans to hold talks this week on the release of Paul Whelan, an American convicted in the Russian Federation for espionage. It is reported by Interfax.
“The next high-level talks with Russia on Whelan will take place this week,” he said.
Whelan, who is a citizen of the United States, Ireland and Canada, as well as a subject of Great Britain, was sentenced by the Moscow City Court on June 15, 2020 to 16 years in prison for espionage. Now the American is serving his sentence in the Mordovian correctional colony No. 17 of a strict regime.
Whelan was detained in Moscow at the end of 2018 during what the FSB reported was a spy operation. The defense claims that the American was the victim of a provocation: he was given a flash drive on which he allegedly expected to see a photo from a tourist trip to Sergiev Posad near Moscow. The defendant himself in the last word stated that he was not engaged in espionage.
Earlier, a Russian citizen Viktor Bout, who was serving a sentence in the United States, was exchanged for an American Brittney Griner convicted in Russia. Whelan’s family expressed disappointment that Paul Whelan was not included in the exchange. According to the American’s lawyer, “the discussion of the issue of his exchange continues at the level of the special services.”
Source: Rosbalt
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