The Russian government says it officially has charged U.S. citizen Paul Whelan with espionage. If convicted, Whelan faces a 20-year sentence.
Mr. Whelan, whose arrest was announced on Monday, is being held in solitary confinement in the notorious Lefortovo Prison in Moscow.
The head of global security for the Michigan auto parts maker BorgWarner, Mr. Whelan, 48, has emerged as a curious figure in the days since his arrest. A former Marine who was court-martialed for several misdeeds, including larceny and passing bad checks, he has been traveling to Russia at least since 2006.
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He was familiar to numerous Russians who have known him or interacted with him on social media over the past decade. They said he seemed to pop up every six months or so and enjoyed traveling around Russia, especially by train ...
Unusually [sic] for an occasional visitor to Russia, Mr. Whelan had an account on Vkontakte, the Russian version of Facebook, for about a decade. The account showed that he was last active at 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 28, the day that the Federal Security Service, Russia’s domestic security and intelligence agency, said he was arrested.
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There has been widespread speculation that Russia seized Mr. Whelan to exchange him for Maria Butina, a Russian citizen jailed in the United States ...
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... While there is no apparent connection between her case and Mr. Whelan’s, Russia has a history of arresting foreigners to exchange them for its citizens held elsewhere.
Mr. Whelan’s lawyer said that he would welcome an exchange, but that it would take time. The shortest timetable for the legal case would be six months to a year, he said, after which the issue of an exchange might be broached. Such a deal would require a pardon from President Vladimir V. Putin.
“This is a long process,” Mr. Zherebenkov said. “I myself hope that we can rescue and bring home one Russian soul.”
Rosbalt’s [a Russian news agency close to the security services] intelligence source said that Mr. Whelan had been apprehended during a meeting with a Russian citizen in his room at the Metropol Hotel. He is accused of trying to recruit this person to obtain classified information about staff members at various Russian agencies, the account said.
Mr. Whelan was arrested five minutes after receiving a U.S.B. stick containing a list of all the employees at a classified security agency, the report said.
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“I presume that he is innocent, because for now I haven’t seen any evidence against him that would prove otherwise,” said Mr. Zherebenkov, who said that Mr. Whelan would petition the court for bail. At this point he has been ordered held for two months, a standard procedure.
Read more: Paul Whelan, American Accused of Spying, Is Said to Be Charged in Russia (NYT)