Paul Whelan from Russia: 'I have been told that I won’t be left behind'

Michigan's Paul Whelan said Sunday that he has more confidence in U.S. efforts to bring him home from Russia than he did a few months ago in December, though he wishes the process would move faster.

“I remain positive and confident on a daily basis that the wheels are turning. I just wish they would turn a little bit more quickly,” Whelan told CNN in a phone call from his prison camp in the Russian province of Mordovia.

That's where Whelan, a former security executive from Novi, is serving a 16-year sentence and is in his fifth year of detention after a conviction on what he and U.S. officials have long decried as bogus espionage charges.

But Whelan does still worry the U.S. government could leave him behind a third time after prisoner swaps resulted in the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner in December and former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed earlier last year. Russia more recently arrested Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, also on espionage charges.

“That’s an extreme worry for me and my family,” Whelan told CNN. "I have been told that I won’t be left behind, and I have been told that although Evan’s case is a priority, mine is also a priority, and people are cognizant of the fact that this is having an extremely negative impact on me and my family. And I’m told that the government is working tirelessly to get me out of here and to get me home so they can then focus effort on Evan and his case."

“I feel that my life shouldn’t be considered less valuable or important than others who have been previously traded. And I think there are people in DC that feel the same way, and they’re moving towards a compromise and resolution to this as quickly as they can,” Whelan added, according to CNN.

“There will be an end to this, and I hope it’s coming sooner than later, but it is depressing on a daily basis going through this."

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

Through news reports, Whelan said it was encouraging to hear both President Joe Biden's comments about him at the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner, as well as his sister Elizabeth's appearance last month at the United Nations Security Council meeting when it was led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

At the correspondents dinner, Biden said Whelan was "unjustly" held and that his team would not stop fighting "until we get him home." And Elizabeth Whelan stood in the gallery inside U.N. Security Council's chambers and was recognized by Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as the ambassador blasted Russia for its "barbaric" imprisonment of her brother.

Whelan told CNN said he believes the Russians allowed those events to be broadcast in an effort to convey them as “the Americans begging for one of their people back.”

“The public displays and events such as the press corps dinner and the U.N. visit demonstrate to not just me, privately, but to the world that our leaders are impacted by this, and they do want me back, and they are working to try to get me home,” Whelan said, according to CNN.

He also urged both sides, Russia and the U.S., to sit down and work out an agreement that would free him. He said he knows "there are negotiations underway" and urged Biden specifically to "follow through with your promises and commitments, truly make my life a priority, and get me home."

More:Why getting Whelan freed from Russia is proving harder than Griner

Last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Lavrov to demand Gershkovich’s release and afterward said he also had reiterated to Russia's foreign affairs minister that the U.S. had put forward a proposal “that’s been on the table for some months” regarding Whelan. The details of that proposal have not been made public.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday he had no specific updates with regard to the proposal, saying officials have found it's "not conducive" to efforts to return wrongful detainees home to speak such details.

"I will say that I did see Paul Whelan's comments in the interview that was released over the weekend, and I can assure him and I can assure his family members that we have no higher priority than returning him safely home to the United States," Miller said during a press briefing.

"The secretary continues to work on it — other people in this building, other people throughout our government continue to engage on it and the same goes the same holds true for Evan Gershkovich."

The Whelan family has repeatedly raised concerns echoed by other families of wrongfully detained prisoners abroad that the White House and State Department are prioritizing cases where detainees or their loved ones have the resources to generate "notoriety " ― a reference to the cases of Griner and Gershkovich.

More:Whelan family at odds with Biden administration over brother's plight in Russian prison

mburke@detroitnews.com