Paul Whelan is frustrated with Biden's efforts to win his freedom 1:46
(CNN Spanish) --
The release of basketball player Brittney Griner in Russia has focused attention on another American who is still imprisoned there: Paul Whelan.
The former Marine was arrested in 2018 in Moscow and, in 2020, sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage.
This is what you should know about him.
Paul Whelan, corporate security expert discharged from the Infantry
Whelan was born in Canada to British parents and lived in Novi, Michigan (he also held Irish and US citizenship).
He had been working as global security director for automotive component supplier BorgWarner since 2017.
Prior to working for BorgWarner, Paul Whelan was a senior manager with global security and investigations group Kelly Services, a US-based staffing firm.
In 2013, he told
Security Magazine
that his job at Kelly Services was, in part, to prevent violence in the workplace.
Exclusive: Paul Whelan tells CNN he is 'disappointed' that the Biden administration has not done more for his release
Whelan served 14 years in the Marine Reserves, until he was discharged for misconduct in 2008. His service ended after he was court-martialed for attempted larceny, military court documents show.
His conviction record says that while in Iraq, Whelan attempted to steal $10,410.
He was charged with misusing another person's Social Security number and writing bad checks.
While in the Army, he flew two missions in Iraq, in 2004 and 2006.
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Paul Whelan in Moscow, in a photo released by the Marine Corps in 2006.
I had traveled to Russia before
Before his arrest on December 28, 2018, Whelan had traveled to Russia on more than one occasion.
When Whelan was in the Army in 2006, he took advantage of his two weeks' leave to visit the country.
A 2007 Infantry article says that he spent the leave "experiencing post-Soviet era Moscow and St. Petersburg."
A photo from that time shows him on the other side of the Moskva River, in front of the Kremlin.
According to what his brother said in 2019, he liked to travel all over the world and had also been to countries like India and Iceland.
Whelan flew to Moscow on December 22 to attend the wedding of a retired US military man and a Russian woman, according to his family.
According to his brother, Whelan was serving as a tour guide for other wedding guests who had not previously visited Russia.
Before his arrest, he had stayed at the Metropol Hotel in Moscow and had spent time with the wedding guests in the Kremlin.
At the time of his arrest, Whelan had reportedly been using a Facebook-like Russian social media platform called VKontakte, or VK, for 13 years.
For years photos of Whelan have been uploaded to the social network VKontakte, or VK, from around the world, in a profile with his name.
What did they accuse him of?
Authorities alleged that Whelan was involved in an intelligence operation, something he emphatically and repeatedly denied, and arrested him on charges of espionage.
After a months-long case, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison on that charge.
Whelan is serving his sentence in a labor camp in Mordovia, an eight-hour drive from Moscow, where he told CNN in June 2021 that he spent his days working in a garment factory he called a "sweatshop."
The US State Department has declared him wrongfully detained.
Why was Paul Whelan left out of the prisoner exchange?
The Russians recently signaled that they were only willing to deal for Griner and not Whelan, a US official said, because Russia said it handles its cases differently depending on the allegations against each.
John Kirby, strategic communication coordinator for the National Security Council, confirmed in an interview with CNN that the different treatment by the Russians has to do with the "nature of the charges."
On Whelan weighs a sentence of espionage while Griner, for her part, had been sentenced to nine years in prison for drug smuggling with criminal intent.
The Biden administration made repeated offers to release Whelan as part of this deal, even after Russia made it clear that only Griner was acceptable.
In the end, when it became clear that Russia would refuse to deal with Whelan, the United States had to agree.
“This was not an election on which American to bring home,” Biden said.
“Unfortunately, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul's case differently than Brittney's.
And although we still haven't achieved Paul's release, we are not giving up.
We never give up".
The Biden administration said Friday that it will continue to negotiate with Russia to secure Whelan's release.
The Russians "have things they want in this world," and Moscow knows that ultimately the two sides will come to "a mutually acceptable deal if they keep talking to us," a senior government official told CNN.
"The options were to bring Brittney or nothing," a US official said;
and he added that it was a "difficult decision" for Biden, but once again, he felt he had to make it.
Whelan told CNN in an exclusive phone call from the prison where he is being held in a remote part of Russia that he was "disappointed" that the Biden administration has not done more to secure his release.
Whelan said he was happy Griner was released, but he was "led to believe that things were moving in the right direction, that governments were negotiating and that there would be news soon."
Exclusive: Paul Whelan speaks from a Russian prison 3:21
"I don't understand why I'm still sitting here," he said.
The Biden administration has some ideas about "new forms of deals" they will try with the Russians in an effort to secure Whelan's release, a senior official told CNN on Thursday.
The official said they recognized the US needs to make available "something more, something different" than what they have offered the Russians thus far, and did not rule out offering a Russian spy in US custody in a possible future exchange.
“There is even a willingness to pay a very high price on the part of the president,” the official said.
“We have made it clear to the Russians that we are at least open to telling them what is available to us, what we can really offer.
It would be someone in our custody," he said.
Richardson said he expects Whelan to return home by the end of the year.
With reporting from CNN's Jason Hanna, Emanuella Grinberg, AnneClaire Stapleton, Amanda Watts, Matthew Hilk, Barbara Starr and Nicole Chaves.
Brittney Griner
