Whelan says Navalny’s death behind bars ‘extremely troubling’

Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has been detained in Russia since 2018, said Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in prison is “extremely troubling.”

Whelan said in an interview with CNN on Tuesday that if “they can get to him, they can get to me,” speaking of Navalny.

Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 on espionage charges, which he has denied.

Russian officials announced last month that Navalny died while serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism. Russian officials said Navalny felt unwell after a walk and lost consciousness. They later told his mother that Navalny died of “sudden death syndrome.”

In his interview with CNN, Whelan raised concerns about the circumstances surrounding Navalny’s death and what that could mean for him.

“It’s extremely troubling that someone like Navalny would die under suspicious circumstances, but it’s also extremely worrying for me that this is the sort of thing that goes on,” he said.

“If they are willing to face the repercussions from the world for doing in somebody like Navalny, they’re not going to think twice about doing in someone like me, and then blaming the United States for not bothering to get me back in five years,” he added. “So when I’ve said in the past that my death warrant’s been signed, this is the sort of thing that I refer to.”

Whelan said in an interview with BBC last year that he felt abandoned by the United States after two prisoner swaps occurred without him in recent years.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last month he had spoken with Whelan, who he says the U.S. is working to bring back home “every single day.”

“Our intensive efforts to bring Paul home continue every single day. And they will, until he and Evan Gershkovich and every other American wrongfully detained is back with their loved ones,” Blinken said at the time, also referencing the Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained last year for espionage-related allegations in Russia.

Whelan described it as “a very, very good call” to CNN.

“I left the call with a good feeling that the Secretary and other members of the National Security Council are engaged and they are trying to get this resolved,” Whelan said to the outlet.