Former US President Donald Trump described the sensational prisoner exchange between Russia and the US as an “unpatriotic disgrace”. “Why was former Marine Paul Whelan not included in this completely one-sided transaction?” Trump asked in a post on the network he co-founded, Truth Social, on Thursday. Whelan was arrested in Russia in 2018 and convicted of alleged espionage.
The US government has promised to continue negotiating Whelan’s release. American basketball player Brittney Griner, sentenced to nine years in prison in Russia, and Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, jailed in the United States, were released as part of the mediation. The choice was to release Griner or no one, said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. “There was no way to bring Paul home at the time.”