According to the White House, President Joe Biden spoke with Elizabeth Whelan on Friday. She is the sister of a US Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018 on suspicion of espionage.
When Biden contacted the wife of WNBA star Britney Griner, who had recently entered a plea deal on drug charges in Moscow, Whelan’s sister expressed her shock and crushing disappointment.
In addition to those Americans detained abroad, Biden underlined that the US is still committed to bringing Whelan and Griner home.
The administration will keep Whelan’s family informed, according to a White House official.
‘The U.S. government will continue to be in regular contact with Paul’s family, and with the families of other Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, to provide support and assistance and keep them updated on efforts to secure the release of their loved ones,’ the official said.
The development follows Press Secretary Karine Jean-refusal Pierre’s to inform journalists if Biden intended to phone the imprisoned Marine’s family.
When questioned about Elizabeth Whelan’s remarks during her scheduled news conference, Jean-Pierre said that administration representatives had already spoken with one another.
She said, “The president is routinely updated.”
Biden, according to Jean-Pierre, “has this on his mind right now.”
On July 6, the White House released a press release praising a conversation he made to Cherelle Griner, the basketball player’s wife, while accompanied by Vice President Kamala Harris, assuring her that the nation was making every effort to free her.
She said, “I’m still searching for that news release that says @POTUS has talked to anybody in OUR family about #PaulWhelan, unlawfully held in #Russia for 3.5 years.”
“I’m devastated. He must speak with the Whelans if he wants to discuss ensuring Paul’s release! What should we think? Added she.
On CNN, Elizabeth Whelan clarified that she was not jealous of the attention that Griner, a Phoenix Mercury center, is getting over her detention for two vape cartridges containing cannabis oil that she brought through the Moscow airport.
‘It’s really wonderful,’ she said. ‘They have resources far beyond what our family does. Our concern is, why the outreach to some families and not others. There are 55-plus families that would like to have that same attention.’
She was making reference to the estimated number of Americans now held in Russian jails and prisons.
Griner admitted confessing to drug charges on Thursday, saying to the judge that she had hurriedly packed and had not planned to breach the law. She may spend 10 years in prison.
In contrast, Paul Whelan was detained at a hotel in Moscow in December 2018 and accused of spying on Russia for the United States. He was given a 16-year term of hard labor at a Mordovian prison camp.
Despite the former soldier’s repeated claims of innocence, he was found guilty and given a sentence in June 2020.
The Whelan family said that the phone call with Cherelle Griner suggests that the Biden administration has been playing favorites.
‘I don’t begrudge Ms. Griner and her supporters their success in getting the president’s attention while he ignores so many other families,’ Paul Whelan’s twin brother, David Whelan, told The Detroit News.
‘It suggests the only way to get the White House’s attention, under President Trump or President Biden, is to have celebrity and wealth and resources that most wrongful detainees do not have,’ he added.
Elizabeth Whelan said that there should be.
‘I was astonished to hear about this call and it did make me wonder,’ she said. ‘Should we be pushing for a meeting with the president? Is that what it’s going to take to bring my brother home? What I would really like to see is a functioning process that didn’t require that.’
The Whelan family has been vocal in its criticism of how the Biden administration has handled Americans who are detained abroad.
In a prisoner swap with Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in the US of narcotics trafficking, Trevor Reed, another former Marine detained in Moscow, was freed in April.
Elizabeth Whelan stated in June, “I think what we are really concerned about is there seems to be a lack of a concerted effort to bring Paul home and also other unjust detainees.”
Additionally, the US government might employ instruments other than transactions.
And I’m particularly concerned about how everyone has boxed themselves in about a trade or not.
While this is going on, Paul is wasting away in a Russian Gulag, waiting for someone to solve the problem.