The family of US citizen Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia for espionage, expressed hope on Monday that US President Joe Biden will raise the issue for his release during the upcoming phone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 7
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2021) The family of US citizen Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia for espionage, expressed hope on Monday that US President Joe Biden will raise the issue for his release during the upcoming phone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 7.
"We hope that President Biden will press for Paul's release, as his representatives in the State Department and the National Security Council have done," the Whelan family said in a statement.
The statement expressed confidence that Biden will do everything in his power to press for the release of Paul Whelan despite the two leaders having other important issues to discuss.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised the issue of Paul Whelan's release during his recent meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Stockholm, the statement noted.
"We were glad to see that Paul's release is an absolute priority for the United States," it said.
The Whelan family also noted that it participated in a virtual roundtable with National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Friday.
"The call was attended by dozens of families of Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained," it said. "There was a candid discussion and I came away with greater clarity about the White House's process."
Paul Whelan is serving his sentence in Russia's Mordovia region after a Moscow court sentenced him to 16 years in prison last June on charges of espionage. He has denied the charges but did not challenge the verdict in the hope of being part of a potential prisoner exchange between the United States and Russia.
