Imprisoned Former Marine In Russia Urges Biden Admin To Take ‘Decisive Action’ To Free Him

An imprisoned American in Russia urged the Biden administration to take “decisive action” to free him, CNN reported Saturday.

Paul Whelan, a former American Marine, was arrested in Russia in 2018 on espionage charges that both he and the U.S. government deny are true. More than 2,000 days into his imprisonment, Whelan is reflecting on the “incredible amount of time” he has had to spend in jail and is asking the Biden administration to step up and pressure Moscow into releasing him, according to CNN.

“There should be decisive action taken,” Whelan told CNN. “The US needs to go out and do something – fill up Guantanamo Bay with Russian officials, arrest Russian spies, do something that makes the Kremlin sit up and take notice and say, ‘Okay, yeah, right, now it’s time that we’re gonna get Evan and Paul back and then we want back what you’ve got of ours, and we’ll call it a day.”

“Until decisive action is taken, until there’s a strong response to this sort of behavior, they’ll keep grabbing people like Trevor (Reed) and Brittney (Griner) and Evan and others,” he told CNN.

Whelan referenced Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was arrested in March 2023 on similar espionage charges; like Whelan, Gershkovich’s charges have been identified as false by the U.S. government. Whelan is also referencing Brittney Griner, a WNBA basketball player who was imprisoned in Russia and released in 2022, and Trevor Reed, who was arrested in 2019 and subsequently released alongside Griner in a prisoner swap deal.