The consultations will take place “at a high level” and will take place this week, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. The United States hopes to reach an agreement with Russia on the exchange of Paul Whelan, who is sitting in a Russian colony. “We will only need to offer Russia the right formula,” said US national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The Joe Biden administration initially offered Russia to exchange Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, convicted in Russia, for Viktor Bout, convicted in the States. But Paul Whelan, who was found guilty of espionage, was not included in the final deal, which was exchanged last week.
Former US District Judge Shira Sheindlin, who presided over Victor Bout's trial and sentenced him to 25 years in prison, RIA Novosti said that she would support the exchange of American Paul Whelan for Russian Alexander Vinnik.
Alexander Mikhailov, member of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Major General in the reserve, discusses the prospects for the exchange:
– We know what happened to him, that such a topic was considered, the Americans offered such an option, but the Russian side did not go for it. They exchanged one for one, and by the way, for a very specific figure, who is absolutely uninteresting to us from the point of view of both law and law. As for the US representative who was convicted of spying against Russia, this is the second question. Surely this is the subject of a very serious bargaining.
— From your point of view, an equivalent exchange is Alexander Vinnik or who?
— I don’t know which candidates are considered at all, all will be decided by the political leadership, based on those opportunities and the need, which can give more political dividends to Russia than the United States. So I think it's a matter of time. I doubt that now we can specifically name the person we will demand to return to the Russian Federation.
– There are two polar points of view regarding the exchange. One is that all exchanges are good, it means that there are diplomatic-minded people on both sides, and negotiations are possible. On the other hand, they say that usually all exchanges are carried out before a decisive aggravation of relations. What position do you support?
—I think that it is beneficial for us, because, in principle, any exchange is, first of all, political evidence of the effectiveness of our diplomacy.
Paul Whelan was detained in Moscow at the end of 2018 during a spy campaign, according to the FSB. The defense is sure that the American was the victim of a provocation. The defendant himself in the last word stated that he was not engaged in espionage. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Alexander Vinnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the United States, who accused him of creating a crypto exchange without an American license. Billions of dollars were allegedly laundered through this exchange. In the US, Vinnik faces 55 years in prison. In January 2020, the Russian was extradited to France.
If Russia had an understandable option for exchanging Whelan for someone else, such an exchange would have already taken place, says Nikolai Topornin, associate professor at MGIMO, director of the Center for European Information:
Nikolai Topornin
Director of the Center for European Information, Associate Professor at MGIMO
“There is no adequate replacement for the exchange of Whelan, the situation here is not simple, he is charged with financial crimes for a large amount. But in general, we have quite a lot of people there, and I don’t understand the principle of exchange, whom to choose, who is illegally or wrongfully convicted there. It seems to me that there is no figure equivalent to Whelan in American prisons. A high official of the American presidential administration said that such negotiations are not a change in the overall US policy towards Russia, but are an eventful element of interaction when they have the standard task of getting their citizen out of prison. There is no thaw in relations, and probably no deterioration will follow this either, because these are completely different things. I do not see any such secret idea behind these actions.
Paul Whelan's family met with representatives of the US presidential administration and the State Department, writes The Hill. State Department spokesman Ned Price stressed that Washington will “creatively and relentlessly” try to secure Whelan's return home, especially amid renewed public calls to do so.
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