WXYZ — Thursday marks five years since Paul Whelan was imprisoned by Russia. He's currently serving a 16-year sentence for espionage which the White House denies and calls a wrongful detainment.
So far, the fight for the former marine and Novi resident's release has proven unsuccessful.
7 Action News spoke with Paul's twin brother, David, on the anniversary.
“I think in the last six months to a year, we’ve all started to come to grips that we may not see Paul until 2034 which is the end of his current sentence and that’s assuming that the Kremlin and the legal system in Russia doesn’t add time," David said.
In 2018, the Kremlin accused Paul Whelan of espionage. He was convicted in 2020. David said, at this point, there is only a slight amount of hope in securing Paul’s early release.
“The Russian government, the Kremlin, it’s belligerent, it’s kleptocratic,” David described.
“We were heartened a little bit by the fact that President Putin a few weeks ago said in his telethon, national telethon, that he was hoping that these cases could be resolved. So yeah, it’s hard to know why Paul’s case hasn’t been resolved," he said.
David said his brother has been able to make a number of phone calls to journalists in the West in an attempt to get a message to the White House. He said Paul has done that in the past.
“I think it really shows that his mental health, his resilience is starting to crack. I think he’s trying to find any way to get attention brought to his case to have him released and unfortunately, I’m not sure that it’s going to make any difference," David said.
He said the U.S. government is in a difficult position trying to negotiate with an uncooperative government.
“But at the end of the day, it requires the Kremlin to participate, and they have shown that they will ignore the U.S., that they’ll decline the U.S. concessions and so until they come around to having an agreement, a good faith discussion with the U.S. about it I don’t see that Paul’s going to be coming home," David said.
He tells 7 Action News the grim reality that's constantly on his mind is that Paul may not see his 84 and 86-year-old parents again.
"So, once you do the math, it's a matter of how do you keep your parents alive for 10 years more years, 11 more years? The reality is that the support that we give Paul, the phone calls that our parents do with him on a daily basis are corrosive. They wear you down, they stress you out. They give you all sorts of anxiety," he explained.
David was referring to the conditions of the prison and an assault his brother reportedly endured at the hands of another inmate in November.
When asked what one message he wants to get out there, David said, "Well, I don’t think that the Kremlin listens to me. I don’t think that they have anything but their own self-interests that they’ll listen to. I would encourage the Biden administration and the U.S. government generally to continue to work on these cases, but more than just solving Paul’s case or more than just solving a particular individual’s case, figure out how to make a deterrent so that the hostage-taking of Americans stops.”
