US Marine veteran Paul Whelan believes he was left behind in Russia as a “hostage”

After a successful prisoner exchange leading to the release of Trevor Reed back to America, after his imprisonment in Russia, Marine veteran Paul Whelan wonders why he is still in Russian custody.

Whelan has spent 40 months as a prisoner in Russia on a falsified charge of espionage. After an unfair trial, he was sentenced to 16 years in a Moscow prison. Now he is challenging Biden on why he is still sitting there.

From the New York Post:

“Why was I left behind?” Whelan, 52, asked at hearing news of Reed’s release Wednesday, according to a statement from his family.

“While I am pleased Trevor is home with his family, I have been held on a fictitious charge of espionage for 40 months,” he said from his Moscow prison.

Why hasn’t more been done to secure my release?” he asked in a direct challenge to Biden, who took credit for freeing Reed on Wednesday in exchange for a Russian pilot who was a major international drug trafficker.

If Biden is going to take credit for the successful exchange which released Trevor Reed, then he must also take responsibility for his apparent inability to free Paul Whelan.

Whelan’s family is left wondering why Biden makes the choices which he does, and if some cases are “too hard to solve” for Biden.

Paul Whelan’s parents are both into their 80s, and the odds which Paul will be released in time to see them again get slimmer every day.

Biden has done nothing thus far to bring Paul home, proving that he is incapable of negotiating in a difficult case.

Because of this, an American Marine veteran falsely accused and held in a foreign nation continues to lose precious time imprisoned.