Speculation rises over Russia prison swap including Paul Whelan

Online trackers watching prisoner movements in Russia have sounded the alarm over a possible prisoner swap with the West, with the whereabouts of multiple high-profile prisoners unknown, including those of American prisoner Paul Whelan.

At least seven notable Russian dissidents have been moved unexpectedly in recent days in addition to Whelan and Russian-British prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza, Reuters reported. The exact location of Whelan and Kara-Murza are unknown, their attorneys told the wire service.

Russian state media RIA also reported that attorneys for Alexander Vinnik — a Russian imprisoned in the U.S. — said he will soon be involved in an exchange, declining to specify his exact location.

RIA said that information for four Russians imprisoned in the U.S. — Vinnik, Maxim Marchenko, Vadim Konoshchenko and Vladislav Klyushin — had disappeared from a federal Bureau of Prisons database.

Whelan has been detained in Russia since 2018, and was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage. The U.S. government has denied that Whelan was involved in espionage operations. 

He had complained of being abandoned by the Biden administration after being left out of two previous prisoner exchanges with Russia. Whelan is the longest-imprisoned American in Russia whose charges have been disputed by the U.S. government.

Kara-Murza is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for treason after criticizing the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

His attorney, Vadim Prokhorov, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Kara-Murza’s legal team has not been allowed to see him, adding that he is scheduled for a court appearance on Thursday. Prokhorov speculated that his client may have been placed on a military flight flagged by online trackers headed for Moscow earlier Wednesday.

Kara-Murza’s last known whereabouts were in a prison hospital near Omsk, in Siberia, Prokhorov said.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield pressed the Russian foreign minister to release Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in a U.N. meeting earlier this month.

“We will not rest until Paul and Evan come home, and Russia has ceased this barbaric practice of holding human pawns once and for all,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “And that’s a promise.”

The last prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia was in 2022 to free WNBA star Brittney Griner.