After the arrest of a U.S. citizen in Moscow, the backgrounds are still unclear. Rumors are getting louder that Whelan was imprisoned him against a Russian spy exchange. From Moscow’s Miodrag Soric.
Paul Whelan explored the Russia, probably with the railroad and worked as a security officer
You want him to “catch him in the act” caught in the act, claimed the Russian secret service FSB. The US citizen Paul N. Whelan soll am 28. December, in the Metropol Hotel – right opposite the Kremlin – a USB-Stick with sensitive data of Russian agents receive. They were to him by a Russian citizen to pass, the Russian news Agency Rosbalt. This relies on Moscow’s security circles.
Whether the described circumstances of the arrest really is, it can not be verified independently. Currently, Paul Whelan sits in custody. Against him a process, because agent activity is running. The Russian secret service know that In the case of a conviction up to 20 years in prison threaten him.
A visit from the US Ambassador
About the circumstances of the “If” asks the well-known Russian security expert Pavel Felgenhauer. He called in an interview with the German wave “suspect”. Whelan made it difficult to obsess him, not like a typical American Agent, not even diplomatic immunity. In General, U.S. agents have a diplomatic status. So you can be in the worst case, in the case of an arrest, in a country which no good relations with the USA under-reported.
The Headquarters of the Russian secret service FSB in Mokau
In the meantime, the American Ambassador in Moscow, Jon Huntsman, has visited the prisoners. The details of the conversation in the Lefortovo prison, are not known. The American Secretary of state Mike Pompeo let know that Washington is going to call for the immediate release of its citizen, if the detention is not lawful.
Paul Whelan has in addition to the American, canadian and British nationality. That is why the British Embassy is seeking to gain access to Whelan. The British foreign Minister, Jeremy Hunt criticised in an Interview in London the arrest. “Individuals should not be used as pawns in a diplomatic chess game abused,” he said. Since the Skripal affair, the British-Russian relations are at a low point. Hunt also said that his Ministry check regularly for which countries travel warnings pronounced to be. This can be understood as an indirect threat to the address of the Kremlin.
Whelan as a pressure medium for an exchange?
Whelans family believes-Year-old at the innocence of the 48. American Newspapers said the brother, David, Paul Whelan had traveled to Russia to attend a wedding of a friend. Paul barely speak Russian, fly but is more often to Moscow, because he cares for the country and its people, as well as the Orthodox Faith. In the American press Paul Whelan is portrayed as a Person who like to rail Russia to explore Soviet tea glass holder to collect and social media, there is contact to ordinary Russians – including hairdressers and former military. Whelan is a former Marine who served two Times in Iraq. As he told in the social media, he is politically a supporter of President Trump. In the US state of Michigan, he heads the security Department of a car parts manufacturer.
Weapons lobbyist Maria Butina – you accuse US authorities of conspiracy against the United States
His Russian lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, in the innocence of his client convinced. He had seen no evidence that would prove the opposite is true, he said in Moscow. His client was in a good mood, let the lawyer know.
Since the background of the arrest of Whelan remain unclear, speculate is now the Russian media about the arrest. Security expert Pavel Felgenhauer in an interview with DW is conceivable that Whelan is to be exchanged against the Russian citizen Maria Butina. The student also appeared as weapons lobbystin in appearance, is in Washington to court. She is accused of, as Moscow’s agent have conservative American circles undermined. In order to mitigate the sentence, she agreed with the Prosecutor’s office apparently, a plea of guilty. The has criticized the Russian foreign Ministry two weeks ago as a “forced, false confession” violently.