The administration of United States President Joe Biden is marking the four-year anniversary of American businessman Paul Whelan‘s detention in Russia, an imprisonment that remains a major irritant in relations between Washington and Moscow.
Whelan is currently serving a 16-year sentence in a prison colony in Russia’s Mordovia region. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Wednesday that securing Whelan’s release remains a top administration priority.
US officials had hoped to include Whelan in a prisoner swap earlier this month, in which they traded detained basketball star Brittney Griner for a convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout. The administration considers Whelan, like Griner, to have been wrongfully detained.
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