DETROIT – Michigan man Paul Whelan, recently released from Russia, expressed his relief and frustration upon arriving in the U.S. after being imprisoned for over five years on espionage charges.
Timeline: Michigan man Paul Whelan released from Russian prison after more than 5 years
Whelan was freed as part of a massive prisoner swap that freed two dozen people, according to the White House. The trade was the largest prisoner swap in post-Soviet history and required months of negotiations and concessions.
Whelan said he’s never going back to Russia.
“Looking forward to seeing my family down here and just recuperating from five years, seven months and five days of just absolute nonsense,” Whelan said. “This is how Putin runs his government. This is how Putin runs his country.”
The criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin comes nearly six years after Whelan’s arrest on espionage charges when he was in Russia for a wedding. The Novi man has been jailed since 2018 on accusations of being a spy. There was no trial and no evidence, but in 2020, Russian authorities sentenced him to 16 years in prison.
Thursday, Aug. 1, Whelan and two of the other freed prisoners landed in San Antonio, Texas, for medical evaluations. Whelan thanked his family for keeping pressure on the United States government over the years and expressed gratitude to everyone who had wished him well.
He said one of the first things he’d like to do while in Texas is eat a steak.
There’s no word on when he might return to Michigan.