President Joe Biden faced virulent online criticism for the prisoner swap with the Russian government that freed WNBA superstar Brittney Griner and left former United States Marine Paul Whelan out of the deal.
Whelan is currently serving 16 years in Russian custody on espionage charges.
Whalen himself has expressed disappointment with the president, while his parents have issued numerous statements in support of the deal that saw Griner home for Christmas.
Now, Whalen’s twin brother is sending a clear message to President Bidena and the regime of Vladimir Putin about his brother’s captivity.
“We saw [United States Marine] Trevor Reed come home, and Paul didn’t come home. We saw Brittney Griner come home, and Paul didn’t come home. You start to wonder, ‘How many more shots is the U.S. government going to be able to take, and when will the Russian government, if ever, decide that they have been given what they want in order to release Paul?'” David Whelan told People magazine.
“It’s hard to keep up your optimism, your hope for year after year, after year.”
Griner, in her first public statement since her release from Russian captivity, where she was set to serve nine years in a maximum-security penal colony, said she plans to use her celebrity to free all wrongly imprisoned Americans, including Whelan.
[People]
