Blinken speaks with Paul Whelan, American detained in Russia, for third time

Washington — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he spoke with Paul Whelan, an American businessman the U.S. considers to be wrongfully detained in Russia, on Monday. 

"Yesterday, as it happens, I spoke on the phone with Paul Whelan," Blinken said Tuesday at an event on hostage diplomacy at the Wilson Center in Washington. "Our intensive efforts to bring Paul home continue every single day, and they will until he and Evan Gershkovich and every other American wrongfully detained is back with their loved ones." 

It's the third time Blinken has spoken with Whelan, who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 on espionage charges, which the U.S. has said are sham charges. Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.