Another obstacle to US-Russian relations is Paul Whelan’s conviction
Washington:
The United States expressed its indignation Monday at the conviction by a Russian court of the American Paul Whelan for spying, claiming that he had been deprived of a fair trial.
Whelan, a former Marine arrested in December 2018, was sentenced on Monday to 16 years of forced labor after being found guilty of receiving classified information.
“The United States is scandalized by the decision of a Russian court to today convict the American citizen Paul Whelan after a secret trial, with secret evidence and without adequate compensation for the witnesses for the defense,” said the secretary US state Mike Pompeo in a statement.
“We demand the immediate release of Paul Whelan,” he said.
A few days earlier, Pompeo had publicly called on Russia to release Whelan, who claims he was on vacation in Russia when he was given a USB drive thinking it contained family photos.
“The treatment of Paul Whelan at the hands of the Russian authorities has been appalling,” said Pompeo.
Pompeo said Russian authorities “put his life at risk by ignoring his long-standing health condition”.
The condemnation of Whelan is another obstacle to relations between the two powers, which are at odds with Ukraine, Syria, Libya, arms control and a host of other issues.
President Donald Trump has nevertheless recently declared that he hopes to invite his counterpart Vladimir Putin to the United States, welcoming him to the elite club of the Group of Seven Large Industrial Democracies, thereby ending the suspension by Russia of its annexation of Crimea after having seized it from Ukraine.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
