2,000 Days of Detention: Paul Whelan Pleads for Biden Administration to Take Decisive Action

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It’s not a good kind of milestone to note. American Paul Whelan has been imprisoned in Russia for 2,000 days. 

He is asking the Biden administration to use ‘decisive action’ to secure his release. He also asked for the same to secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Whelan said it was “just an incredible amount of time” to spend in detention “for a crime that never occurred.” 

Both Whelan and Gershkovich are serving time in Russia after being convicted of espionage.

“When you think of 2,000 days, how long that actually is, how many years, how many months, it’s an incredible number,” said Whelan, who called CNN Friday exclusively from his remote prison camp in Mordovia, Russia.

“You go to university to earn a bachelor’s degree – that’s four years. You’re generally in high school for three or four years. Even people go into the military, and they serve four years. So when you think of five and a half years, it’s just an incredible amount of time,” he said.

In December 2018 Whelan was arrested in Moscow. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020. He (and Gershkovich) has been designated as wrongfully detained by the State Department. This decision gives the State Department more tools to pursue Whelan’s release from prison. 

He thinks the Biden administration has taken his case seriously but his message during the CNN interview was that he wants his detention to be taken ‘more seriously.’ 

“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 said. A slew of other Americans – Gordon Black, Alsu Kurmasheva, and Ksenia Karelina – have been arrested in recent months, but have not been designated as wrongfully detained by the US State Department.

Whelan noted that Russian officials wanted a guilty conviction so they could claim his detention was legitimate. The Russian criminal justice system puts people on trial to sentence them. A guilty verdict and prison sentence is how their system works. He said people go to trial and are automatically guilty. 

The State Department released a statement. Spokesman Matthew Miller said the U.S. government “will continue to work to bring home Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan every day.”

“It’s something that we are constantly working on and constantly pursuing,” he said at a State Department briefing last week. “We put a substantial offer on the table to secure the release of Evan and Paul Whelan some months ago, as we said publicly; we’re continuing to work to secure their release. We don’t talk about the details of that publicly, as has always been the case, but it is one of the Secretary and the President’s highest priorities.”

A State Department official told CNN Friday that “2,000 days is far too long for Paul to be wrongfully detained in Russia,” adding, “our hearts go out to Paul and his family, who feel the pain of separation in a way that very few people have experienced.”

Whelan, his family, and the State Department have denied that he is a spy. He is serving his sentence in a remote prison camp in Mordovia, about eight hours from Moscow. He does manual labor in a clothing factory. He describes the prison as “dusty and dirty and nasty.” He said the food was horrible. There is no medical care available and no dental care. He said the conditions are impossible to get used to.

Allegedly the Biden administration has been working on Whelan’s release, including as part of prisoner swaps. His family, however, claims the administration gives them false hope and false promises.  They claim only one offer to secure his release has happened and it was in late 2023.

David Whelan, twin brother to Paul, released a statement on Wednesday. 

“It’s become harder to know, though, as the White House has reduced the information they make available to our family. …. Information sharing that used to happen has stopped. Doors that used to be open are shut.”

The requirement of the release of information in a timely manner in a hostage case falls under the 2020 Robert Levinson Act. There was also a presidential directive issued in 2015. 

Whelan was left behind in two previous prisoner swaps. The 54-year-old former Marine fears that another prisoner swap will be made that includes Evan but not him. He thinks he will be left out again.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told the state news agency TASS that “the ball is in the U.S.’s court, we are waiting for their response to the ideas that were presented to them.”

“I understand that the Americans are probably not happy with something in these ideas — that’s their problem,” Ryabkov said.

Paul’s sister voices the frustration the family feels now, with information slowing to a stop. 

Elizabeth Whelan told The Detroit News on Wednesday that she has no idea why she’s not getting as substantive information or details as she was leading up to January of this year. Last year, both the White House and the National Security Council were reaching out to give her updates, she said.

“That is no longer happening, and the fact that it isn’t makes me wonder, has something changed in their efforts to bring Paul home?” said Elizabeth, adding that the NSC staff have still interacted with her but providing “very limited” information.

“It’s frustrating, as now we are seven months from my meeting with the presideandnt, so vague reassurances of ongoing efforts are not at all satisfa tory.”

The Biden administration doesn’t have a very good record on bringing Americans detained overseas home. We need change in the White House and government departments. Biden is seen as weak on the world stage and this makes the world a dangerous place for Americans. Putin is detaining Americans with impunity because he can. He is using them as leverage to secure the release of Russians imprisoned in the United States and other countries.