The United States is confident it can secure the release of Paul Whelan, a former Marine imprisoned in Russia for four years, because they have «things the Russians want,» after Moscow this week did not agree to include him in the exchange between basketball player Brittney Griner and arms dealer Viktor Bout.
According to a senior Biden Administration official, they are convinced that the two sides will reach «a mutually acceptable agreement» if the Kremlin keeps negotiations open. In that regard, he reiterated that it was the Russians who backed out of the proposal to include Whelan in the deal.
This same source has pointed out that the agreement to exchange the sportswoman for the arms dealer has been the result of the «compromise» between the two and that they will continue «with this work in the future», reports CNN.
One of the «things» Moscow might be interested in is the Russian assassin convicted in Germany, Vadim Krasikov, whose situation this source from the Biden Administration does not rule out as having been addressed in this negotiation.
In that sense, this source maintains that President Biden is «willing» to «pay a very high price» in relation to this case and since Whelan is considered a spy by the Kremlin, it has been made known to them that they do not rule out the possibility of offering them a Russian spy as an offer for the exchange.
On the other hand, this official has confirmed that no issues related to the Ukrainian war were addressed during that negotiation and stressed that the U.S. will not make concessions on that front. «It is not for us to negotiate how that horrible situation is resolved,» he said.
«The future of another country is not up for haggling,» said the senior official, who assured that the White House has «new forms of offers» to make to the Russian side to try to get Whelan out of there.
Whelan, sentenced by a Russian court in 2020 to 16 years in prison for espionage, spoke to CNN on Thursday and said that President Joe Biden and his team «are going to have to look at what it is that they have valuable that these people want and hopefully give it to them,» or he will be «here for a long time.»
Whelan, who holds U.S., Canadian and British passports, was detained in December 2018 at a Moscow hotel by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents. According to Russian Intelligence, an external memory device containing classified information was found on him.
