Happily, I haven’t seen any reports this week of further arrests or trials of Americans (or others) in Russia. Not so happily, our list of those already being held in penal colonies throughout Russia’s vast prison system hasn’t shrunk, either — they’re all still there.

But there has been word from one of the former hostages released in the historic swap of August 1st: former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.

Whelan spoke with NBC News last week about his five years in prison on charges of spying, and his disappointment each time he was passed over while other Americans were released in exchange for Russians being held in the U.S. — a situation that he called “devastating.” [Andrea Mitchell and Julie Cerullo, NBC News, October 21, 2024.]

It must indeed have been difficult when another former Marine, Trevor Reed, was swapped in 2022 for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted of drug smuggling in the U.S. Reed had been imprisoned in a Russian labor camp for three years.

And it was more than a little strange — and surely frustrating to Whelan — to learn of his country’s giving up the so-called “Merchant of Death,” notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who had been refused release numerous times, in exchange for American basketball star Brittney Griner, when she had spent just nine months in detention in Russia. But it appears that it was the Russians — not the Americans — who refused to release a “spy” (Whelan) in return for a mere “criminal” (Bout) — an obvious ruse to disguise the importance they really placed on Bout’s return. [Id.]

There was a great deal about Whelan that seemed strange from the very beginning. In fact, his entire history is pockmarked with apparent anomalies, exaggerations and falsehoods, as for example:

— Born in Canada in 1970 to parents of British and Irish heritage, he held passports from the U.S., the U.K. and Ireland, in addition to Canada. He, his twin brother David, and two other siblings were partly raised in Michigan; and David Whelan has said he believes Paul’s collection of passports was inspired by his genetic background. [Wikipedia biography.]

— He claimed to hold a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and an MBA degree. In reality, while he had taken courses at Northern Michigan University from 1988 to 1990, he never earned a degree. [Id.]

— He said he had been a police officer in Chelsea, Michigan, and a sheriff’s deputy in Washtenaw County, Michigan. However, the Chelsea Police Department said he had only worked there in lesser roles and as a part-time officer, and the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office had no record of his employment there at all. [Id.]

— He worked in IT for Kelly Services on two occasions, from 2001-2003 and from 2008-2010. Taking leave from Kelly between 2003 and 2008, he did serve in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve as a staff sergeant with Marine Air Control Group 38, working as an administrative clerk and administrative chief, and took part in Operation Iraqi Freedom. [Id.] However . . .

— In 2008, he was convicted at a court-martial proceeding on multiple counts “related to larceny,” sentenced to 60 days’ restriction, reduction in pay grade, and a bad conduct discharge. The 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 checks without having sufficient funds in his account for payment.” [Id.]

— Beginning in 2006, he made several trips to Russia, and established a presence on the Russian-language social media website VKontakte (VK), where he had around 70 contacts. He is said to have studied Russian, but used Google Translate to communicate on VK. [Id.]

— And now Whelan claims that, while imprisoned in Russia, he befriended some fellow inmates who later accepted a deal to serve with the Wagner Group of mercenaries in Ukraine, and passed information to him from the front lines by means of “secret burner phones.” He then allegedly passed that information on to the governments of the U.S., Canada, Ireland and England through “the ambassadors and consular teams from the four countries . . . [who] visited him regularly, sometimes bringing him mail from home.” [Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA Today, October 22, 2024.]

All right, about that last one . . . He further claims that guards in the prison camps “looked the other way. A Russian prison guard gets $300 to $400 a month. You give them a carton of cigarettes and you can do just about anything you want.” [Id.]

Who is this guy . . . Walter Mitty??!!! **

** The eponymous fictional character created by author James Thurber in 1939’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. 

From the descriptions of life in Russia’s penal colonies given by other returned prisoners, Whelan’s claims raise far too many questions, and in some cases, simply defy belief.

But whoever — and whatever — the real Paul Whelan may be, he is free at last. And that, of course, is a very good thing.

*. *. *

As for the hostages remaining in Putin’s prisons, we continue to remember them and to fight for their return. They are:

David Barnes
Staff Sergeant Gordon Black
Marc Fogel
Robert Gilman
Stephen James Hubbard
Ksenia Karelina
Michael Travis Leake
Eugene Spector
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland

And all of the others whose identities are not known to me. They are not merely prisoners; they are HOSTAGES, who must be brought home as quickly as possible.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/27/24