Exclusive interview: Paul Whelan reflects on 5 years of being a Russian prisoner

As he spent his fifth Christmas in a Russian prison, Michigan's Paul Whelan was feeling not festive at all but embittered, disappointed and betrayed that President Joe Biden's administration hasn't done more to secure his release.

"I'm depressed, to be quite honest," Whelan told The Detroit News in a Christmas Eve phone interview. "I'm concerned that his administration will work out a deal for the (American) journalist that's being held and will leave me here a third time."

Whelan and the other prisoners aren't allowed to celebrate Christmas or other holidays, so he expected Monday to pass like all the other days in his prison labor camp: No decorations, no special meals, no gifts, "no celebrations at all."

The former security executive from Novi was arrested in a Moscow hotel room five years ago on Dec. 28, 2018, on what he and U.S. officials have long decried as trumped-up espionage charges. Convicted in 2020, Whelan was sentenced to 16 years of hard labor, which has meant long hours in an unheated garment factory at IK-17 ― a penal colony in the far-flung province of Mordovia, about 350 miles southeast of Moscow.

Whelan's detention has spanned two administrations ― Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden — two secretaries of state and three U.S. ambassadors to Russia. He's been detained in Russia longer than Trump was president and worries he might be there longer than Biden, too.

More:Timeline of Michigan resident Paul Whelan's detention in a Russian prison

Whelan has lost his house in Novi, his job, his cars and other possessions, including his golden retriever, Flora, who died earlier this year. Now 53, he has spent five birthdays away from family and friends.

Whelan said he's spent those years privately protesting the U.S. government for its handling of his case, but no longer. In a declared shift in strategy, Whelan says he's now publicly objecting.

"I'm told everyone is doing all they can and that my release is a 'top priority.' But after five years, that sounds like my New Year's resolutions ― quickly set aside and soon forgotten," Whelan said.

"I've been told for five years that everyone's doing everything they can ... That they were close to having an agreement."

But then he hears, again, that the Russians want something that the U.S. is unwilling to give, or that the Russians are "changing the goalposts" again, he added, a reference to conversations with U.S. officials.

In the last two exchanges ― prisoner swaps for basketball star Brittney Griner and another American, Trevor Reed, last year ― U.S. officials claimed the Russians refused to include Whelan, insisting on one-for-one trades.

"And my response to that is, why are they setting the terms? Why is it that the U.S. is jumping on their offers and not negotiating?" Whelan said. "It's extremely frustrating when I get these updates. .... There just doesn't seem to be enough decisive action taken."

Whelan said he in part blames Trump, during whose administration he was arrested and who said he refused to trade Whelan for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout, whom Biden later traded for Griner.

Whelan also blames Biden. He said Biden has relied on "passive political niceties" when he could seize Russian property and vessels, arrest Russian spies, or even revoke the visas of Russian citizens on vacation or living in the United States. Those actions would get President Vladimir Putin's attention, Whelan said.

"Everyone knows I'm not a secret agent with the U.S. intelligence agency — that's the Russian narrative. Unfortunately, because the U.S. hasn't countered that, I'm sitting here for five years, an innocent man," Whelan said.

"The frustrating thing is that if I was a brigadier general and I was a spy ― they would have doubled their efforts to get me back. I should have been back within months. It's unfathomable to me that I've been here five years on a false charge that the world understands is politically motivated and feels there's no merit to it."

More:Putin says he wants to reach deal to release Paul Whelan, Gershkovich

'Back at the blackboard'

Biden officials have insisted they're working every day toward securing the releases of Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, 32, who was arrested in March and faces espionage charges that both the newspaper and the U.S. government deny.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said "not a day that goes by" that the president's team isn't working on the release of Whelan and Gershkovich.

The U.S. recently announced that Russia had rejected a November offer that would have brought home Whelan and Gershkovich ― both of whom U.S. officials have declared wrongfully detained.

"Now, we’re back at the blackboard," Kirby said. "And we’re going to keep seeing what we can do to try to get them out."

Putin said Dec. 14 that he wants to "reach an agreement" to release both Whelan and Gershkovich but that the Biden administration “must hear us” and make an offer that is satisfactory to Russia.

"We want to reach an agreement, and these agreements must be mutually acceptable and must suit both sides. We have contacts with our American partners in this regard, and there is an ongoing dialogue," said Putin, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“It is not easy. I will not go into details, but in general, it seems to me that we are speaking a language that we both understand. I hope that we will find a solution."

A State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, countered that if Putin were serious about what he said in his annual news conference, then "come to the table."

"We would welcome them negotiating in good faith," Miller said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a press briefing last week said his message to families like the Whelans is "we’re with you, the president is with you, and he is working for you every single day to bring your loved ones home."

Blinken noted that the U.S. has brought more than three dozen Americans who were being arbitrarily detained back home to their families over the last three years. 

“Each and every one who comes home should be a message of hope to those who remain detained and to their families and loved ones that not only is it possible, it’s happening, Blinken said.  

Whelan described the U.S. diplomatic strategy as failed and their efforts as "throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what will stick."

"There's too many spokespeople saying that they're 'doing everything they can,'" Whelan told The News. "I think they could be doing more, and I think they should be doing more."

Since the United States traded Bout for Griner, Whelan said they've lost their bargaining position because there's no one else the U.S. has that Russia wants.

Starting about 18 months ago, Russia indicated they wanted the U.S. to get out of a German prison a former colonel from Russia's domestic spy agency, Whelan said, citing his conversations with State Department officials. Vadim Krasikov had been convicted of murder in 2021 and was sentenced to life in prison.

To Whelan's frustration, the U.S. has no control over Krasikov, and the Germans have so far not agreed to let Krasikov go in order for Whelan to be released.

"For four years, I have protested with the government in private. I praised the government in public because there are a lot of good people in the government trying to do the right thing, trying to get me back," Whelan said.

"Now, I have taken to public protest because the government just doesn't seem to be listening."

'It is taking a toll on all of us'

The Israel-Hamas war has changed the dynamics at his labor camp, where many Muslim prisoners from central Asia are also detained, Whelan said.

On Nov. 28, a fellow prisoner whom Whelan said was upset about the United States' support for Israel reached across a work counter where Whelan was sitting and hit him from the side, bruising his face under the eye and breaking his glasses, he said. The man would have continued the assault except for other prisoners who stepped in to restrain the man, Whelan said.

That sort of attack wasn't something that Whelan would have expected before, he said.

"He decided that he would take out his aggression on an American, and the prison responded quickly ― he's being prosecuted for that," Whelan said. "But it leads me to wonder, what happens next?"

Since then, the deputy warden who was admonished because of the incident, Whelan said, has tried to stir up more problems for him, including trying to transfer him to different barracks that would be dangerous and threatening to send him to solitary, he said.

He's concerned that other prisoners, because of the factory they work in, might carry knives or scissors. Guards are not present in the factory or barracks, where prisoners reside, he said.

"It just takes the deputy warden or other guards to influence one or two people to do something stupid, and that could cause a significant injury," he said. "I'm in an area where there's no medical care. If somebody was stabbed or seriously injured, they're basically dead here."

That lack of medical care is also a problem if he has a heart attack, stroke or slips on the ice and cracks his head. "I'm done. That's it."

Kirby, at the White House on Thursday, called the reports that Whelan is under physical threat at the labor camp and being targeted by a prison official "very, very troubling."

"We're very concerned as we hear those accounts from Paul," Kirby said. "We’ll continue to work hard through our embassy in Moscow to make sure he gets consular access and that we can address these direct concerns with our Russian counterparts. But it's very troubling."

Whelan also had harsh words for his former employer, Michigan-based auto supplier BorgWarner, who terminated his job a year after his arrest and continues to do business in Russia.

"They basically turned their back on me. It's also unfortunate that they're still doing business in Russia because it shows that instead of supporting me, they decided that they needed the money from the revenue coming in from Russia," Whelan said.

"That was more important to them. That's something that I'll discuss with them when I get back. Probably in court."

His tone changes when he speaks about his parents, Rosemary and Edward Whelan, ages 84 and 86, whom Paul used to visit almost every weekend at their home in Manchester in southwest Washtenaw County, fixing things, doing chores, making meals. His being left behind in prior prisoner swaps has been hard on them, Whelan said.

"I am extremely sad as I may never see him or receive one of his bear hugs again," Rosemary Whelan wrote in a statement to The News.

Lately, Paul Whelan speaks with his parents most days via 15-minute phone calls — an appointment that the couple schedules their lives around. Usually, he chats about the food, prisoner antics, things not working and his "generally unbelievable life there," Rosemary Whelan said.

"He maintains a 'stiff upper lip' during all of his phone calls to us," Edward Whelan said.

But his detention, Paul Whelan said, has affected all three of them psychologically, diminishing them morally, physically and mentally.

"That's one reason that I'm worried that I won't see my parents again because this is taking years off their lives," he told The News. "I give them a lot of credit for everything that they've done in supporting me. But it is taking a toll on all of us."

mburke@detroitnews.com

Timeline of Michigan resident Paul Whelan's detention in a Russian prison