By the end of 2024, Paul Whelan will have served six years in a Russian prison, one month before the November presidential election. Experts familiar with the negotiations say there may be a chance to free Whelan soon after the election.
“I think the door is open again for negotiations,” said Mickey Bergman, vice president of the Richardson Center for International Affairs. “I just hope we don’t have to wait. We’re in a few more months, and for the prisoners, every day is a potential death day.”
Bergman has spent the past decade negotiating the release of Americans held overseas, including in Russia, and has worked with former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former Democratic New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson. Bergman now directs Global Reach at the Richardson Center for Global Engagement. He believes the recent arrests of U.S. citizens are a response to the failed efforts to secure the release of Paul Whelan.
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“The Russia case is interesting. They took Paul Whelan and tried to make a deal. We refused to negotiate, so they took Trevor Reed. We still refused to negotiate, so they took Brittney Griner,” Bergman said.
Whelan was arrested in December 2018 after he disappeared suddenly during a visit to Russia for a friend’s wedding. Three days later, the Russian government announced that he had been arrested on espionage charges.
“We have made clear to Russia our expectation that they will learn more about the allegations, understand what crimes the suspects are accused of, and if detention is not appropriate, we will seek their immediate extradition,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said at the time.
Mickey Bergman speaks with Neda Chargi and formerly incarcerated WNBA player Brittney Griner. (Andrew Jenks)
Whelan is a corporate security executive and former Marine who was discharged for bad conduct in 2008 after being convicted of using false documents and attempting to steal thousands of dollars while serving in Iraq. He had been visiting Russia since at least 2007 and had friends and connections there for more than a decade. His family claims he was in Russia as a tourist at the time of his arrest.
“My brother is not a spy,” Whelan’s older brother, David, said shortly after his arrest. “Paul comes from a law enforcement background. He’s been in the military and he works in corporate security.”
Experts believe her arrest is the Kremlin’s response to the US imprisoning a Russian citizen. Maria Butina pleaded guilty in 2018 to US federal charges of conspiring to act as a foreign agent, for providing the Russian government with information on key US politicians.
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“My reputation has been ruined both in the United States and abroad,” Butina told a federal judge before being sentenced to 18 months in prison.
There was discussion about swapping Butina for Whelan, but the attempt never gained traction.
“At this stage there are no talks about any kind of exchanges,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in January 2019.
Mickey Bergman is pictured with Cameron Hume and the late former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson near St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. (Mickey Bergman)
Butina was released in 2019 after serving most of her sentence. She currently serves as a member of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma. In 2022, she was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Whelan had served two years of a 16-year sentence at that point.
“We had four chances to bring him home and it just didn’t happen,” Bergman said.
Negotiators first began with a prisoner exchange involving Russian drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko, a deal Bergman details in his new book. In the ShadowsSo the Russians offered to provide dental care for Yaroshenko in exchange for medical care for Whelan.
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“We started with small steps,” Bergman said of his negotiations with Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov. “He said, ‘Basically it’s not about retaliation, but we believe in reciprocity. If you can arrange for dental care for Konstantin Yaroshenko, I’m sure Paul Whelan will get the medical exam you’re looking for.'”
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, Bergman and his team worked with Russian negotiators to advance talks on reciprocity.
“Mr. Antonov suggested, although he didn’t actually say so, that if we could secure the release of Konstantin Yaroshenko on humanitarian grounds, they would respond by bringing Paul Whelan home,” Bergman said.
Bergman believed the offer was a good one and extended it to the White House, but the Trump administration rejected the deal.
“It’s a complicated issue. I believe Donald Trump, as he still does, genuinely wanted Paul Whelan home. He’s talked about Whelan and other Americans who are being held, but he wasn’t willing to give anything in return,” Bergman said.
Nearly two years later, Yaroshenko’s name was back on the negotiating table in exchange for another American prisoner of war.
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“When we do our job, any deal we put together is not fair or just and we get a lot of criticism,” Bergman said.
Trevor Reed was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of assaulting a Russian police officer. Bergman said Russia had requested a two-for-two prisoner swap. Whelan and Reed were to return to the U.S. in exchange for Yaroshenko and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death.” The U.S. was hesitant to do a deal that included Bout, who had been convicted by a federal grand jury in 2011 of conspiracy to murder a U.S. citizen.
“We have to take into account that the Russian team might also play against us,” Bergman said.
Bergman and Richardson were photographed in front of a Georgetown mural depicting Brittney Griner and other detained U.S. citizens.
As President Biden prepares to meet with Russian President Putin at the 2021 Helsinki Summit, Bergman and Richardson suggested the White House raise the possibility of a prisoner swap.
After the meeting, President Biden said, “The families of the detained Americans were there and we discussed this issue. We’re not going to run away from this issue.”
Bergman says no official proposals were put forward after the summit. Only half of the agreement was implemented nearly a year later. Reed returned to the United States, and Yaroshenko was extradited to Russia, where he now serves as part of Putin’s prison monitoring committee.
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“I went to negotiate with Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan at the end of February, right as the Ukraine war was starting,” Bergman said. “I actually didn’t know that Brittney Griner had already been taken.”
A few days before Russia invaded Ukraine, Phoenix Mercury player Brittney Griner had traveled to Russia to play in the Russian Premier League during the WNBA offseason. During a customs inspection, agents found cannabis oil in her luggage. She was arrested on suspicion of smuggling for possessing the substance, which is illegal in Russia.
“We’re not alleging that Britney brought it here as a drug. We’re still alleging that she brought it here unknowingly because she was in a hurry,” Griner’s attorney, Alexander Boykov, said after a July 2022 court hearing.
Mickey Bergman was photographed alongside Richardson (centre), Steve Menzies and Taylor Dudley after their release from Russian captivity. (Mickey Bergman)
Negotiators are expected to discuss another two-for-two swap to release Griner and Whelan in exchange for Bout and a Russian money launderer. U.S. officials have said Russia opposed the release of Whelan. Griner would be released in exchange for Bout.
“This was not a choice about which Americans to bring home. Sadly, and for entirely unjust reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Britney’s,” President Joe Biden said in December 2022 after Griner’s release.
Bout, who returned to Russia and now serves as a local council member, claims his imprisonment in the United States, like that of Griner in Russia, was unjust.
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“There was a similar outrage in Russia when I was sentenced to 25 years. A lot of people said, ‘For what?'” Bout told ESPN in September 2023.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested nearly four months after Griner’s release, during a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains, and is accused of espionage.
“The Russians are very specific. Evan Gershkovich is a reporter. And another reporter from Radio Free Europe has also been arrested and is in custody in Russia.”
Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist arrested on espionage charges, talks with his lawyer from inside a defendant’s cage after a hearing considering his appeal against extended pretrial detention, at the First Appeals Court in Moscow, April 23, 2024. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP)
Prague-based editor Ars Kurmasheva was arrested after visiting her elderly mother in October 2023. She faces multiple charges, including failing to self-report as a foreign agent.
“The Russians don’t see them as political prisoners. They see them as something else,” Bergman said.
While Gershkovich and Whelan’s cases have been the most publicized, it is unclear how many Americans are being held in Russian prisons.
Lesser known cases include American teacher Mark Fogel and musician Travis Leake, who were arrested separately on drug charges, and Ksenia Kavanagh, a dual national who was arrested on treason charges after returning to Russia to visit family.
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Last month, U.S. Army soldier Gordon Black was arrested on suspicion of misconduct after a woman made a complaint, and a Russian court has said he will remain in custody until at least July 2.
Bergman said Putin is unlikely to reach a deal to release the detainees until after the U.S. presidential election.
“President Putin has no interest in making any deal that will make President Biden look good,” Bergman said. “Some might call me an optimist, but I believe there will be an opportunity for negotiations after November, regardless of the outcome of the election in this country.”
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While the U.S. and other countries can work with negotiators to seek the release of Americans overseas, the government cannot tell a foreign court whether its citizens are guilty or innocent. U.S. government officials cannot provide legal advice or representation. The State Department currently has a Level 4 travel advisory for Russia and urges U.S. citizens not to travel to Russia because U.S. citizens are subject to detention.
