“I know the U.S. [has] all sorts of proposals, but it’s not what the Russians want,” Whelan
told the BBC in an interview
published Wednesday. “They go back and forth, like throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks.”
He called the situation “extremely stressful,” adding that he feels the U.S. has “basically abandoned me here.”
Whelan told the outlet that, during Donald Trump’s presidency, Moscow wanted to trade him for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout — who
was released in an exchange
for WNBA star Brittney Griner last December— but a deal was never made.
Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine from Texas who was detained in Moscow,
was also released
and returned to the United States as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia in May 2022.
Whelan’s plea comes as Russia increasingly arrests Americans in the country. The latest high-profile case involved Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was also jailed on espionage charges and the U.S. has been trying to free.
The Biden administration proposed a deal to free both men in exchange for many Russian nationals detained on espionage charges abroad,
CNN reported
in early December. At the time, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that “we have made clear all along that we do not want to leave either one of them behind.”
The State Department and National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.