American Prisoner Paul Whelan in Russia Pleads for Urgent U.S. Intervention

CNN: American Paul Whelan, who is imprisoned in Russia, demanded in an August conversation with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken that he not be left in Russia. “I told him that the first time I stayed here, I painted a target on my back, and the second time, I basically signed my own death warrant,” said Whelan, who called CNN from a camp in Mordovia. He said he told Blinken that if they don’t bring him back, “it’s going to be problematic in the future,” especially given Whelan’s age and health, which is affected by the work in the colony.

▪️ He is confident that work is being done to get him released, but Whelan is frustrated with the slow pace. He would not want to be forgotten amid “other geopolitical issues.” He would like to talk to President Joe Biden “and find out if he will do what he promised.” Whelan realises that the Russians consider him “very valuable, so they want to get something of value in return”. “How long this will go on, I don’t know. But I’m promised I won’t be left here,” Whelan said.

▪️ He considers the quick exchange of Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko and “mistake.” He also told CNN that he knows the Russians are seeking the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian former colonel serving a life sentence in Germany for murder.

▪️ Conditions in his remote prison camp have deteriorated in the three years he has been there, he said. “The economy is failing and the camp needs repairs,” he said, noting that heating has yet to be switched on there. “The food they feed us is bad. The soups we get every day are just water. Overcooked pasta, stale bread and things like that,” he said.

▪️ Whelan is also hearing from his family about American journalist Evan Hershkovich, who has been detained in Russia. “I’m sure he’s going through the same ordeal I went through: days and days of boredom, and then interrogations, interrogations and more interrogations, with false promises of release for confessions and all that. They’re going to wriggle out as long as they can to put pressure on him and also on the US government to do something,” he told CNN.

The entire article can be read at the link https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/24/politics/paul-whelan-blinken-cnn-interview/index.html