Washington D.C. – WXYZ, July 31, 2025
Friday, Aug. 1 marks one year since Paul Whelan has been free. After being accused of espionage and spending more than five years behind bars in Russia, the Michigan native said his return home has been bittersweet.
Upon his release, it was hailed as a major diplomatic achievement, especially since he was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian labor camp. But, he said, getting back to a normal life has been difficult to say the least.
I met up with Whelan in Manchester, where he now lives with his parents, and is trying to reclaim his former life.
Whelan, once a corporate security executive from Novi, was taken into custody in Moscow in December 2018 while he was attending a friend’s wedding. Russian authorities accused him of spying – charges the U.S. government has called baseless from day one.
“What was it like when you were first taken?” I asked.
“I’m in my hotel room, one of my friends is with me, we’re getting ready to go to the wedding,” he said.
That’s when he said 20 officers from the Federal Security Service (FSB), the new KGB in Russia, lined the hallways and stormed his room.
“FSB comes into my room where I am violently arrested. ‘Mr Whelan, you’re under arrest for espionage,’ and so I said, ‘I haven’t committed espionage.’ ‘Well, we think you have,'” Whelan said.
