'In Russia, every decision is...': Griner Negotiator on failed Paul Whelan prisoner swap

Bill Richardson, the negotiator in charge of hammering out the release of Brittney Griner expressed his sorrow regarding Paul Whelan’s continued detention in a penal colony in Russia. He said that he had hoped that Whelan would come back home with the basketball star and he believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably overruled his advisers at the end of negotiations and rejected a double exchange of prisoners. “I was sad that Paul Whelan wasn’t part of it. I’ve been trying for four years to find formulas to get Paul back, but there always seems to be a roadblock at the very end,” Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, the American news outlet CBC told Friday.

“I thought there was going to be a ‘two for two’ trade, Paul Whelan and Brittney for Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer and somebody else, but at the last minute, I think President Putin decided, ‘No, it’s going to be ‘one for one’ or nothing.'” Richardson, who admitted he was “on the edge of negotiations,” said President Biden made the right decision in bringing Griner back to the U.S., but added that efforts are continuing to bring Whelan and other Americans imprisoned in Russia and other parts of the world home. Richardson told CBC that he travelled to Russia to negotiate the prisoner exchange with Russian officials he had met during his official government roles, but said that "eventually in Russia every decision is made by Putin."

The prisoner swap that commenced on December 8 was praised by many, however, there were some who considered it a bad deal. On Thursday, Robert Zachariasiewicz, who was on the DEA team that tracked Bout down, told CBS News that the prisoner swap has the potential to put “other Americans in danger”. He said, “I think we just encouraged false detentions of hostage-taking all over the world. I think we just sent the message out that it is good business to have American citizens in your back pocket for that day, you need a bargaining chip.”

Who is Paul Whelan and why is he detained in Russia?

Paul Whelan is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia at a penal colony in the remote Mordovia region, east of Moscow. It has been almost four years since Whelan has been detained on charges that the White House has described as “totally illegitimate”. Whelan was arrested on December 28 in 2018 by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in a room of Moscow’s Metropol Hotel which is situated near the Kremlin.

Russian investigators claimed that Whelan was a senior spy for the military intelligence in the US. Whelan was caught “red-handed” with a flash drive containing classified information, as alleged by the Kremlin. Defending himself, Whelan said that he had been given the flash drive in a sting by a Russian and thought that it contained holiday photos as he was in Moscow for a friend’s wedding. 

During the time of his arrest, Whelan was head of global security for a US-based car parts supplier. In a trial held behind closed doors, Whelan was convicted of spying in 2020 and was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security prison. He requested that he be allowed to serve his sentence in the US, but the Russian court rejected the request. 

Having served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 2003 to 2008, Whelan worked on the administrative branch situated in Iraq. He was dishonourably discharged from his duties after it was found that he tried to steal US$ 10,000 leading him to be charged with larceny. Whelan, born in Canada to British parents of Irish origin, moved to Michigan state in the US and currently holds the nationality of four countries.