Alsu Kurmasheva (C) since October, Paul Whelan (L) since 2018, and Evan Gershkovich since March are all in detention.
Paul Whelan spent two weeks vacationing in Moscow five years ago, which culminated in a Russian labor camp. The American is going to be thousands of miles away from home for another Christmas in detention.
According to the US government, he was wrongfully arrested and charged with espionage.
However, Paul Whelan told the BBC in a rare phone interview from his isolated prison that he felt “abandoned” by his own nation, which had set up two prisoner swaps with Russia in the past year.
“Serious betrayal” was how he described the decision to leave him behind.
Hostage collection
As US journalist Evan Gershkovich got ready to spend his first New Year behind bars on the same accusation, Mr. Whelan made his remarks.
Both his government and the Wall Street Journal, his newspaper, openly state that Russia’s allegations against him are untrue. As a certified journalist, he was detained in March while carrying out his duties.
Alsu Kurmasheva, a US-Russian journalist, was arrested in October while visiting relatives. She may spend as much as 15 years in prison for her actions, which include disseminating “fake news” on the Russian military.
It appears that the Kremlin is gathering American hostages.
Paul Whelan has spent the most time behind bars. Since then, we’ve spoken numerous times—first in court and then from behind bars.
According to a US government official, Mr. Whelan’s issue is being “continually discussed” with allies and “multiple proposals” have been made to the Russians. The statement said, “Intensive activity does not pass a week.”
But I’ve never heard Mr. Whelan sound so negative or so irritated in all the years that we’ve spoken.
Refused
“I am aware that the US has several suggestions, but the Russians are not interested in them. They so alternate back and forth, much like when you toss spaghetti on a wall to see what sticks.The issue is that while they’re doing this, my life is evaporating. Five years have passed.”
Mr. Whelan claims that following his trial, Russia intended to return him home in exchange for Viktor Bout, the arms dealer who was found guilty. But then-US President Donald Trump “kept saying no.”
After two years, Brittney Griner, an American basketball player who had entered a guilty plea for owning vape cannisters containing cannabis oil, replaced Viktor Bout.
Paul Whelan was abandoned.
“It’s extremely stressful knowing that I could have been home years ago,” he stated to me. “Knowing that they have committed these errors is very upsetting. I feel like they’ve abandoned me here.”
Additionally, Mr. Whelan is a citizen of the UK, Ireland, and Canada, and he has had visits from the ambassadors of these four nations.
However, I was informed that the UK Foreign Office was “providing consular assistance to a British citizen” when I enquired about their efforts to get him out.
It said the same thing five years prior.
Evan’s story
Sensitive negotiation specifics will not be confirmed by the US State Department. However, Secretary Blinken was described as “personally committed” to obtaining Mr. Whelan’s release by the US government spokesperson.
The US “will not cease these efforts” to bring its citizens home, despite Russia having turned down “several significant offers,” according to the statement.
Paul Whelan is not the only one who depends on that.
Since the end of the Cold War, no Western journalist had been accused of espionage in Moscow before Evan Gershkovich’s arrest in March.
“Evan is a journalist, not a spy. That should go without saying, adds Evan’s friend Polina Ivanova, a Financial Times correspondent in Moscow.
