Biden meets with family of Paul Whelan, Marine being detained in Russia

President Biden met Wednesday with the sister of Paul Whelan, the former Marine who has been detained in Russia for over five years.

The meeting, which also included National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, took place at the White House and marked the second time Elizabeth Whelan has met with Mr. Biden.

Mr. Whelan has been detained in Russia since 2018 and was sentenced to a 16-year prison sentence in 2020 on espionage charges that his family and the State Department have long insisted are bogus.

In December, Moscow rejected an offer by the Biden administration to secure the release of Mr. Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter also being held in Russia.

The State Department last month did not reveal the details of the offer or why Russia had turned it down but did say it was “significant.”

“This was a new proposal, in recent weeks. It was a significant proposal,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “And it was rejected by the Russians but it does not, it will not, deter us from continuing to do everything we can to try and bring both of them home.”

The U.S. government has deemed both men to be wrongfully detained.

In July 2022, the administration had made a proposal to Moscow to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and Mr. Whelan, but it was rejected. Ms. Griner was ultimately released in December 2022 prisoner swap for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, but Mr. Whelan was not part of the deal.

“Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul‘s case differently than Brittney‘s,” Mr. Biden said in 2022 about the deal. “While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul‘s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

Mr. Whelan‘s family said they did not understand why he was passed over, but expressed relief that Ms. Griner was released.

“I am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred,” Mr. Whelan said in a phone interview with CNN in 2022. “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”