Today marks three months since President Putin and President Biden met in Geneva and 993 days Paul has spent wrongfully detained by Russia. Our family is reminded today of President Biden's words, both that he raised Paul's case with President Putin, and that he would not walk away from our family's plight. We remain hopeful that his administration is "continuing that discussion" to find a way to return Paul to Michigan.
[Raised the cases of Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed (ABC):https://youtu.be/_maXSPWW_7Y ]
["I am not going to walk away" (CSPAN): https://youtu.be/MkCttdMNNcA ]
As you may have seen, Paul's lawyers have petitioned the Supreme Court of Mordovia to have Paul transferred back to the US to serve his sentence. The petition's status is pending, subject to a referral for information by the Court to the Ministry of Justice and, potentially, to the "competent authority of the United States of America."
[Mordovia Supreme Court press: http://vs.mor.sudrf.ru/modules.php?name=press_dep&op=1&did=1422 ]
U.S. government transparency on how they are handling wrongful detentions remains inconsistent. At this juncture, and specifically in relation to prisoner transfers, we have very little insight into who is doing what or anything. We believe the International Prisoner Transfer Unit (IPTU) of the Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs (OIA) is the entity the Ministry of Justice will contact. You might be able to learn more about this process from them and, if they're the contact point, whether anyone has contacted them.
[IPTU contact info: https://www.justice.gov/criminal-oia/iptu ]
Our parents have continued to receive phone calls from Paul. We appreciate the normalcy this creates for both Paul and them. It is some comfort to both that they can have this regular communication.