Friday, Aug. 1 marks one year since Paul Whelan has been free. After being accused of espionage and spending more than five years behind bars in Russia, the Michigan native said his return home has been bittersweet.
Upon his release, it was hailed as a major diplomatic achievement, especially since he was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian labor camp. But, he said, getting back to a normal life has been difficult to say the least.
Watch our full story with Paul in the video below
I met up with Whelan in Manchester, where he now lives with his parents, and is trying to reclaim his former life.
Whelan, once a corporate security executive from Novi, was taken into custody in Moscow in December 2018 while he was attending a friend's wedding. Russian authorities accused him of spying – charges the U.S. government has called baseless from day one.
"What was it like when you were first taken?" I asked.
Watch Carolyn's full interview with Paul Whelan in the video below
"I’m in my hotel room, one of my friends is with me, we’re getting ready to go to the wedding," he said.
That's when he said 20 officers from the Federal Security Service (FSB), the new KGB in Russia, lined the hallways and stormed his room.
"FSB comes into my room where I am violently arrested. 'Mr Whelan, you’re under arrest for espionage,' and so I said, 'I haven’t committed espionage.' 'Well, we think you have,'" Whelan said.
Watch below: Paul Whelan thanks Michigan delegation after his release from Russia
At first, he told me he thought it a prank, but, "it got real very quickly."
Whelan said this about the FSB. "They do intelligence, counter-intelligence; if somebody needs to be assassinated, they do it."
After being handcuffed and hauled off to a local FSB station, Whelan said he was told the U.S. had arrested Maria Butina. Butina is a Russian woman who tried to infiltrate conservative U.S. political groups and promote Russia's agenda. She pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an unregistered agent for Russia.
Whelan said he was told that Russia wanted her bad.
"'Our idea is we’re going to do a trade, so take it easy, chill in your cell, don’t do anything rash, this will be worked out,'" Whelan said he was told.
Whelan says he felt like a pawn. He says as a citizen of four countries, he had four passports on him.
"Born in Canada to British Parents, grandparents are from Ireland, I’m a naturalized American, so I have four passports," he said.
Whelan says the FSB claimed the passports were fake and that America had provided them.
"The foreign ministry of Russia said no, they are real, he is a citizen of four countries, it's legitimate," he said.
Something he says the FSB would never admit, even after he was let go. Russia claimed he was a brigadier general in the defense intelligence agency, and a secret agent collecting names and photos of students with the border guard. He says Russia provided no proof.
"People will still, in the back of their mind,s say, 'was he a spy?' You were not a spy?" I asked.
"I was not a spy, I’ve never been an intelligence officer. I don’t have formal ties to any government organization that’s involved with espionage," he said.
Whelan was sent to an FSB prison built in the 1800s. He was lodged in a cell with two steel beds bolted to the floor and spent 23 hours a day inside, with one hour in an outside cell.
"I could easily put my hands on both walls. It was 15 steps from the doorway to the bed," he said.
He was fed cabbage soup, chicken feed, bread and tea, and sometimes had no access to water.
He received a lot of media attention. Perp walks and photographs in a cage inside Russian courts, and he would spend a year and a half in prison.
'There was a lot to be said about the Russians wanting media attention and the media attention being good for me to get my message out back home," Whelan said.
A trial judge, a prosecutor and his Russian attorney would decide his fate. In 2020, he was sentenced to 16 years in a labor camp.
Watch below: Past coverage on Paul Whelan's detention
Whelan said he was awakened every two hours with a light to his face.
"It’s sleep deprivation. It’s not good. We say it’s torture, they say it isn’t," he said.
He was also subjected to harsh conditions and limited communication.
"The camps look like Auschwitz, built in that same manner," he said.
He also dealt with repeated disappointment as he was left out of high-profile prisoner swaps, including the deal that freed WNBA star Brittney Griner.
"Is there any moment in your mind where you’re like, I may never get released, or I may die?" I asked.
"I was optimistic. The U.S. government said they were coming for me and that means something to veterans," he said.
Watch below: 'We're overjoyed.' David Whelan speaks after Paul Whelan's release from Russian prison
His family was always in the media, pressing for his release.
At one point, Whelan got so ill he needed emergency surgery for a hernia. He said he had no medication and no sedation, just an epidural and a mirror to watch, in a hospital he says would remind you of the TV show MASH.
"So they cut you open fixed that up, and you’re looking and are you praying and saying, 'oh my god, I hope I make it through this?" I asked.
"Yeah, oh my god, that was probably the scariest moment," he said.
After four long years of suffering, Whelan was told to write a request for a pardon from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said he was told he didn't have to admit anything, just say he wanted a pardon because Moscow needed it.
Whelan’s long-awaited release came alongside 15 other Westerners in a deal that then President Joe Biden called “a feat of diplomacy.” Whelan was first off the plane, greeted by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
Watch below: President Joe Biden greets Paul Whelan at Andrews Air Force Base
"President Biden took the flag off his lapel. He took it off and put it on my shirt, I wear it sometimes. It was a nice moment I’ll remember," he said.
But, he said his long-overdue return to Michigan felt like a gut punch. After 20 days of evaluation in Texas, he had to find his own way home.
"I came home to no home. My house was gone, no job, cars were gone, and finances had been used over the years to store things and pay attorneys," he said.
Whelan says he’s been denied unemployment, health insurance and at 55, although he’s highly qualified, his six-year work gap puts him out of the running for many jobs.
"There's a stigma from being in prison, even though I was wrongfully held, I was still in prison," he said.
Whelan says he joined the military to give back after America gave his family so much as immigrants. Now he’s back home with his aging parents in Manchester who escaped Germany during World War II.
A GoFundMe has been started on his behalf as Whelan looks to restart his life.
He also has two new furry friends, Minnie and Muffet, after losing his dog and cat while being held in Russia.
"They're kind of like support cats," he said.
He's also working to get his life back on track.
"I’m in the security realm, doing some things for attorneys, advocacy, slowly getting back into the field that I'd been in," he said.
He says there are so many people to thank for their support, including a local dentist, car dealership and others like Rep. Debbie Dingell, who visited his parents, Sen. Elissa Slotkin for sending text messages, and Rep. Haley Stevens.
"From that moment to today, she’s been supporting me," Whelan said of Stevens.
"He was taken and stripped of his life, all because of the illegal actions of Putin. He was the cause of his detainment," Stevens said.
She rallied Congress, writing legislation and helping change laws to improve aftercare and treatment of hostages.
"Paul Whelan’s story has led to real legislation. We passed Hostage Recognition Day, we’ve also carved out resources to dedicate to families as they’re trying to coordinate for their loved ones," Stevens said.
He says he knows he’s got a long way to go in his healing, but like the motto no soldier left behind, he knows he’s got people he can call on for help.
"I like they haven’t forgotten, they haven’t moved on, they’re still here," he said.
When I asked Whelan who was at the top of his list to thank, he said his family is first, followed by Biden, Harris and all those who worked under them tirelessly fighting for his release.