SITREP Pod: Free Paul Whelan, American and former US Marine held in Russia | Pod Hostage Diplomacy

POD HOSTAGE DIPLOMACY

American citizen and former US Marine, Paul Whelan has been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia since 28 December 2018. President of the United States Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Ambassador to Russia, John Sullivan have all called on Russia to release Paul Whelan and let him come home to his family in Michigan.

We had the honour of interviewing Paul’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan in September 2021 to find out what happened to Paul and what we can do to help. Four months later, there have been significant and worrying developments.

On this episode, Elizabeth Whelan joins us once again. We discuss escalating tensions between the US and Russia as the Russians appear to be getting ready to further invade Ukraine. We also discuss what the US government needs to do better, how American businesses with operations in Russia can help as well as what news outlets and the American public can do to free Paul Whelan.

We have interviewed eight American families to date with loved ones held hostage or wrongfully imprisoned overseas. The common problem they all face is that they don’t know where to start when working to free their loved one. There is currently no playbook to provide guidance to these families and they all end up having to reinvent the wheel. The Whelan family have taken the initiative and created a set of resources for American families in this situation. Elizabeth tells us more about these resources and where you can access them for free.
If you prefer, you can watch the video version of this interview on YouTube.
For more information on Paul Whelan, please check out the following:

• Our previous episode: Ep 4
• Free Paul Whelan website
• Free Paul Whelan Go Fund Me
• Elizabeth Whelan's Twitter account
• Social media hashtag: FreePaulWhelan

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Chapter

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Who is Paul Whelan? (00:00:48)

3. What happened to Paul Whelan? (00:05:23)

4. Significant and worrying developments (00:07:31)

5. What should the US government do? (00:09:09)

6. What can news outlets do to help? (00:18:29)

7. Punishment for countries that take Americans hostage (00:21:07)

8. What can American businesses with operations in Russia do? (00:27:12)

9. What can the American public do to help? (00:29:55)

10. Guidance for other American hostage and wrongfully detained families (00:34:20)