That day, Paul Whelan was preparing for the wedding of a fellow U.S. Marine at Moscow's prestigious Metropol Hotel when he received a surprise visit from his longtime Russian friend, a junior officer in the Frontier Guards.
The friend handed him a thumb drive that contained photos and videos from a trip the two had taken to various parts of Russia several months earlier. As Mr. Whelan pocketed the drive, several men in civilian clothes, some with balaclavas covering their faces, burst into the room.
One of them told Mr. Whelan in English, “We're in the U.S. Marshals Service, and you’re under arrest for espionage.” “I’m not spying,” he replied.
Mr Whelan, 54, speaking in Washington in his first lengthy newspaper interview since his release on August 1 in the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War, said he believed his arrest in late December 2018 was a prank. Ta. . It wasn’t.
Within hours, he found himself confined in a 9-foot-by-9-foot cell in Moscow’s notorious maximum-security Lefortovo prison. Soviet-era political prisoners were tortured there. So began Whelan’s journey through Russia’s harsh, often unrealistic, state-manipulated criminal justice system. His ordeal, by his own calculations, lasted five years, seven months and five days.
In Lefortovo, he survived emergency hernia surgery in the middle of the night at a hospital, but when half of the overhead lights were not working and doctors dropped instruments on the floor, they picked them up and continued the operation. Convicted and sent to a labor camp, he endured a diet of bread, tea, and watery fish soup suitable for cat food, weekly cold showers, and the buttons and buttons on his winter clothes. It withstood the long hours of sewing buttonholes. For government employees.
“It was boring, monotonous and filthy,” he said, adding: I really want to be with you. You have no control over when you leave and come home. ”
Mr. Whelan’s arrest marks a new chapter in so-called hostage diplomacy, in which citizens of the United States and other countries are arrested and imprisoned on false charges in exchange for their persons or other interests.
In the case of the United States, this practice dates back to at least 1793 with the Barbary Pirates, who kidnapped about 100 Americans. The most recent case can be traced back to 1979, when hardline students seized 52 Americans at the US embassy in Iran. revolutionaries. Violent groups in the Middle East, such as the Islamic State, continued this practice, sometimes decapitating prisoners who failed to demand ransom.
But Whelan’s case was tricky because he was captured by the Kremlin itself, not by a terrorist organization. The agents of the Federal Security Service (formerly KGB, now known as FSB) who took him in were clear about their motives. The goal was to get three Russian prisoners held by the United States released.
“They said, we want the American government and our government to make changes for them, you for them,” Whelan said, adding that the statement It has been repeated many times over the years.
Whelan first visited Russia in 2006 while serving in the Marines in Iraq. A World War II enthusiast, he was drawn to the major battlefields and ended up visiting at least six times. At the time of his arrest, he was the head of security for BorgWarner, an international auto parts manufacturer based in Michigan.
In the process, he opened an account on VKontakte, Russia’s Facebook, and befriended about 70 Russians. They are usually younger men, many with backgrounds in the security field. Whelan, a former Michigan State Trooper, said he hopes to have his insignia replaced.
In 2008, Mr. Whelan was convicted of attempting to steal more than $10,000 in U.S. government funds in Iraq and received a “no-conduct discharge” from the Marine Corps. He said he would discuss the incident only in his planned memoir.
U.S. officials have long said that, like many countries, the U.S. sends out spies with diplomatic passports (which means they can escape prosecution but are usually expelled) and who have criminal records. It has been pointed out that it is possible to avoid sending such personnel.
Mr Whelan had known the police officer who handed him the flash drive for 10 years. Mr. Whelan’s own parents were staying with a Russian family near Moscow in 2009.
Russia accused Mr. Whelan of being a brigadier general in the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency and insisted that he undergo a secret trial on charges of espionage. Whelan said the closed-door proceedings were a “sham” and a “Moscow goat rodeo” disguised as a judicial proceeding.
“They don’t want it to seem like they’re taking tourists out of hotels and holding them to ransom for spying, but that’s what they’re doing,” he said.
The case hinged on the contents of the flash drive, which was never shown in court, but prosecutors said contained the names and photos of cadets from a division of the FSB. He said the drive was taken from him shortly after his arrest and never appeared again. Whelan said the contents were retroactively declared classified.
During one trial, a judge pointed out that five cardboard boxes laid out in front of him all contained evidence that neither the judge nor his FSB-appointed lawyers were allowed to read.
Years later, Russian state television broadcast several minutes of footage from Mr. Whelan’s Metropol Hotel bathroom, showing him being handed a thumb drive in the bathroom. Whelan said it was clear that the FSB had installed cameras, and that the Norwegian man who had been arrested on suspicion of espionage had also been assigned to Room 3324, so it was likely that they were permanently installed. said.
In June 2020, Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in a labor colony and was told within minutes that he would be going home in two weeks.
It turned out to be much longer. He said he was left behind twice, a frustrating and demoralizing experience when the U.S. government negotiated separate deals for two Americans arrested after him.
It was initially believed that he was brought in for a trade with Maria Butina, who was accused of acting as an unregistered agent for Russia in the United States in 2018. But her relatively short prison sentence ended before Mr. Whelan was convicted.
In 2022, the U.S. government traded Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for basketball star Brittney Griner. and drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko, also a former US Marine, Trevor Reed. Russia balked at including Mr. Whelan in any exchange.
“It was shocking,” Whelan said, adding that she felt abandoned by the U.S. government. “I clearly wasn’t as important as the others.”
He continued to boost morale by singing the national anthems of the four countries of which he is a citizen every morning. England, where his parents are from. Ireland, my grandparents’ homeland. And the United States.
Lefortovo’s cell was newly painted and equipped with some amenities, including a flat-screen television. While waiting for his trial to begin, he devoured spy novels and Russian classics such as “War and Peace.”
After his conviction, he was sent from Lefortovo to labor camp IK-17 on the Mordovian frontier southeast of Moscow. He said the complex was converted by German prisoners of war during World War II, so the low brick buildings surrounded by barbed wire fences still resemble Auschwitz.
Instead of cigarettes, guards brought prisoners meat, fruit, and dairy products to add to the prison’s meager diet. He was also able to buy a cell phone that way and keep in regular contact with his family. Greiner and his basketball teammates donated money to his prison account.
At both prisons, guards checked on him every two hours at night, ostensibly to make sure he wasn’t running away, and sometimes shined bright lights in his face. He considers it harassment and still has trouble sleeping.
He tried to take some control over his life by setting his own schedule. If the official wake-up time is 6 a.m., he’ll wake up at 5 and be the first to the practice field. He says seeing photos of himself in prison or in court triggers a type of post-traumatic stress syndrome, causing him to relive his darkest moments. He hopes it will fade over time.
At least 11 American or Russian-American dual citizens are serving disproportionately long sentences in Russia for a variety of crimes.
Ryan Fahey, a lawyer who represented the Whelan family’s freedom campaign pro bono, said that to combat hostage diplomacy, countries holding captives must face sanctions and other measures. Seizures must be immediately escalated to high-level alert. And the United States must do more to keep Americans out of countries with a history of hostage-taking, including Russia, Iran, and China.
Whelan’s possible release was first hinted at when two FSB officers asked him to apply for a pardon from President Vladimir V. Putin. He wrote a letter explaining that he was not spying, that his parents were elderly, and that his beloved golden retriever, Flora, had passed away.
He was released in a historic exchange involving eight Russians, including a convicted assassin, 16 journalists and Russian opposition figures.
While incarcerated, he lost his job and apartment. He is unmarried and lives with his elderly parents in Michigan, but he lacks the financial means to start a new life. He started a GoFundMe campaign.
He said he remains an advocate for better health care for his Central Asian friends imprisoned in Russia and for the release of imprisoned Americans.
“You can’t take revenge, can you?” he said. “All I can do is look forward.”
