“In recent weeks, we made a new and significant offer to release Paul and Evan. That offer was rejected by Russia. We should not have made those offers. They should never have been arrested in the first place. They both should have been released immediately,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
He declined to disclose details of the U.S. offer, but said authorities would continue to do everything possible to free Whelan and Gershkovich.
In late October, CNN, citing a State Department source, wrote that the U.S. had made a “serious offer” to release Whelan. The Russian Foreign Ministry said it had not received any new prisoner exchange proposals.
Former Marine Paul Whelan was detained in Russia in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges. Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich has been in pre-trial detention since March of this year, he is also accused of espionage.
