"They've left me behind," American Paul Whelan says from Russian prison after failed bid to secure release
CBSN
Paul Whelan, an American who's been imprisoned in Russia for 5 years on espionage charges that both he and the U.S. government dismiss as baseless, has said it's "unfathomable" that the Biden administration has "left me behind" while other Americans have been freed in prisoner swaps. Whelan told CBS News' partner network BBC News in a phone interview from prison that he feared he would be left out of any future prisoner swap with Russia, too.
"A serious betrayal. It's extremely frustrating," he told the BBC. "I know that the U.S. has come up with all sorts of proposals — serious proposals — but it's not what the Russians are after. So they keep going back and forth. The only problem is, it's my life that's draining away while they do this."
"It's five years. It's unfathomable to me that they've left me behind," said Whelan, who is also a citizen of the U.K., Ireland and Canada.
