Or 1 month, 11 days including the end date.
Biden and Harris have brought in one of Hillary's old snipers from Russia
Paul Whelan sniper trainer released from Russia in a prisoner swap on August 1st 2024.
Whelan, a Marine Corps veteran who holds U.S., British, Irish and Canadian citizenship, was arrested in Russia in December 2018 on charges of espionage he strongly denied. On June 15, 2020, a Moscow court sentenced Whelan to 16 years in prison.
In a statement on Thursday, his family said: "Paul was held hostage for 2,043 days. His case was that of an American in peril, held by the Russian Federation as part of their blighted initiative to use humans as pawns to extract concessions ... While Paul was wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, he lost his home. He lost his job. We are unsure how someone overcomes these losses and rejoins society after being a hostage. We are grateful for everyone’s efforts to help Paul while he was away. We hope you will continue to help him by providing Paul the space and privacy he needs as he rebuilds his life. It is Paul's story to tell and he will tell it when he is able."
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy welcomed the release of Whelan and Kara-Murza, both of whom are British nationals. “Mr Kara-Murza is a dedicated opponent of Putin’s regime," Lammy said in a statement. "He should never have been in prison in the first place: the Russian authorities imprisoned him in life-threatening conditions because he courageously told the truth about the war in Ukraine."
President Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the president spoke to the freed prisoners while they were on the tarmac in Ankara, where they were waiting on Thursday to board their flight back. He said both Biden and Vice President Harris would be present at Joint Base Andrews Thursday night, when a plane is due to land with Whelan, Gershkovich and Kurmasheva.
According to Whelan, he entered the law enforcement profession in 1988, the same year he graduated high school. He stayed in this profession through the 1990s, as a police officer in Chelsea, Michigan, and a sheriff's deputy in Washtenaw County.[10] The Chelsea Police, however, said he worked in lesser roles and as a part-time officer from 1990 to 1996, while the Washtenaw County sheriff reported no record of his employment.[10] A former colleague said he was a patrol officer from 1998 to 2000 in the Keego Harbor police department.[10] During this period, in 1994, Whelan enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve.[10]
He became an IT manager for the Kelly Services staffing company from 2001[11] to 2003, and then 2008 to 2010. From 2010 to 2016, Whelan was promoted to Kelly Services' senior manager of global security and operations.[11]
He took military leave from Kelly Services to serve with the Marine Corps Reserve from 2003 to 2008, including service in Iraq. He held the rank of staff sergeant with Marine Air Control Group 38, working as an administrative clerk and administrative chief, and was part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.[11] After a court-martial conviction in January 2008 on multiple counts "related to larceny", he was sentenced to 60 days restriction, reduction to pay grade E-4, and a bad conduct discharge.[12][13] The specific charges against him included "attempted larceny, three specifications of dereliction of duty, making a false official statement, wrongfully using another's social security number, and ten specifications of making and uttering[a] checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment."[15]
When arrested in Russia, Whelan was director of global security and investigations for BorgWarner, an international automotive parts manufacturer based in Michigan.[11][16][17] His work with Kelly Services and BorgWarner gave Whelan contacts with the U.S. intelligence community, federal agents and foreign embassies.[18]
Whelan traveled to Russia several times from 2006 and maintained an intermittent presence on a Russian-language social media website, VKontakte (VK), where he had approximately 70 contacts. He has studied Russian but communicated online using Google Translate.[3][9] Whelan supported Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election; following Trump's victory, he posted in Russian Президент Трyмп Вперед!! ("President Trump Onward!!").
Paul Nicholas Whelan (born March 5, 1970) is a Canadian-born former United States Marine with U.S., British, Irish, and Canadian citizenship.[2][3] Whelan left the Marines in 2008 with a bad conduct discharge after being convicted on multiple counts "related to larceny".
He was arrested in Russia on December 28, 2018, and accused of spying. On June 15, 2020, he received a 16-year prison sentence. He was released in a United States–Russia prisoner swap in Ankara, Turkey, on August 1, 2024.
Whelan was born on March 5, 1970,[4] in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada,[5] to British parents with Irish heritage.[3][6] He was raised partly in the Ann Arbor area of Michigan where he and his twin brother David graduated from Huron High School in 1988.[7] In addition to his twin brother, Paul Whelan has a brother, Andrew, and a sister, Elizabeth.[4] He said in a deposition in 2013 that he holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and an MBA degree.[8] He took courses at Northern Michigan University from fall 1988 to fall 1990 without earning a degree.[9]
On December 28, 2018, Whelan was arrested in the Moscow area by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which later confirmed his arrest. Whelan was formally charged on January 3, 2019. On June 15, 2020, Whelan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison for espionage by a court in Moscow.
On May 4, 2023, U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited Whelan in the remote Russian penal colony where he was being held.[65] On August 16, 2023, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Whelan on the phone and told him to "keep the faith and we're doing everything we can to bring you home as soon as possible."[66] On November 28, 2023, David Whelan discussed in an email to supporters that Paul had stated he was assaulted during his time at the camp; he was punched in the face by another inmate while working at a sewing table. Whelan's glasses were broken during the assault, which David speculated may have been motivated by "anti-American sentiment [which] is not uncommon among other prisoners."[67]
According to an inmate, Whelan received a lot of mail in prison, including a letter reportedly from Julian Assange.
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