EXCLUSIVE: American prisoner in Russia calls on Biden to do more to secure his release
On Christmas Eve, the phone rang at 5:58 a.m. The call rolled to voicemail. The voice on the message was very familiar, even though he and this WTOP reporter had never spoken before.
Calm, polite and quietly desperate, the voice said, “My name is Paul Whelan. I’m a U.S. citizen being held hostage by the Russian government. I’d like to speak to you about that.”
Hours later, he called WTOP again with another message — an urgent one for President Joe Biden.
“Mr. President,” he said. “You promised to bring me home. I’m still here. There has to be more that you can do to secure my release.”
Whelan, who on Dec. 28 will have been in Russian custody for five years, was not speaking generally about the President’s team.
“The concern that I have is that diplomatic efforts have failed and not enough is being done to secure my release from the very top,” he said.