CNN: Judge who sentenced Booth thinks it advisable to exchange him for Whelan

"Victor Bout has already served a long term in prison - it would make sense (I paraphrase) if he was exchanged for someone like Paul Whelan," the RIA Novosti correspondent quotes.

It is noted that we are talking about the judge who sentenced Bout in 2012.

Earlier, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia was ready to transfer American citizens serving sentences in the country to the United States, but Paul Whelan, convicted of espionage, was not one of them.