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Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden are now in the process of discussing the next steps in order to secure the release of former Marine Paul Whelan, who is currently detained in Russia. The administration is also expected to issue new sanctions following the presidential order signed during the summer.
US hostage affairs envoy Roger Carstens said Sunday that the Biden administration is set to meet on Monday to discuss the next steps in order to secure the release of Whelan, who has been detained since 2020. Carstens told MSNBC that Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were personally involved in the effort to secure Whelan’s release.
“We’re working hard. We’re coming up with different ways to do this. We will not fail this mission,” said Carstens on MSNBC.
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Carstens said the Biden administration is expected to announce new sanctions in relation to the executive order Biden signed last summer. The executive order authorized sanctions and visa bans on people responsible for wrongfully detaining American citizens. Carstens said that such sanctions were always being discussed and that it would be a matter of time before the penalties were implemented.
Thursday last week, Biden announced that a prisoner swap occurred between the two countries, exchanging WNBA star Brittney Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The US leader said at the time that Moscow was treating Whelan’s case differently but vowed to keep working to secure Whelan’s release.
Carstens told CNN that he personally spoke with Whelan Friday, the day after the prisoner exchange involving Griner. Carstens said he assured Whelan that the Biden administration was committed to getting him home.
In an interview with Russian state television RT Saturday, Bout said he wished Griner good luck on the tarmac at Abu Dhabi, where the exchange took place. Bout had already served 14 years of his 20-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of money laundering, arms trafficking, and conspiring to kill Americans.
“I wished her luck, she even sort of reached out her hand to me,” said Bout. “Again, it’s our tradition. You should wish everyone good fortune and happiness.”
