On Monday, announced the verdict in the case of the American spy Paul Whelan. He was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security colony. A 50-year-old man in a dark sweater seems discouraged - not the judge’s robe looms on the horizon, but the black robes of Russian prisoners, his new comrades and family for long, very long years. 16 years old, I’ll tell you, not a joke.
Sir Paul does not look like a spy thriller star: thin pursed lips, glasses, neatly laid gray hair - looks like a typical quiet psychopath from America. Well, you know: Thanksgiving turkey, kids, a backyard barbecue, and suspicious rides around Brooklyn on rainy nights. But the biography says much more than looks: one and a half ten years of service in the US Marine Corps, two business trips to Iraq, an IT and security specialist.
And here is the number of the Moscow hotel. Detention.
By the way, I am completely deprived of any sort of gloating over this matter - my comrades are serving even more terrible terms in Euro-American GULAGs. In French Poissy with three lifelong days, the hero of the Cold War Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal, spends his days. In Marion, Illinois, Russian pilot Viktor Bout is serving his sentence. Both were illegally captured by US intelligence agencies.
For some reason, the Western press speaks reluctantly about them, angry calls for the release of prisoners of conscience are not heard. But his son of a bitch Paul is another matter. Following the announcement of the verdict, US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan said he was "disappointed and furious." In his opinion, “no evidence was presented in court to prove Whelan’s guilt”. Sullivan probably hoped that, according to the Kozyrev comprador tradition, the American would be released for all four, given a ticket for a beautiful liner and the Order of Friendship.
Apparently, a remark is connected with this that the verdict will spoil Russian-American relations. By the way, have you heard about Russian-American relations? I’ve heard about the announced new sanctions that proposed the introduction of the Trump Republican friends against Moscow. In general, I would not begin to worry about the ears of a dead donkey - Russian-American relations.
By the way, the matter was not limited to one ambassador only. The ambassador, of course, is a respected figure, but the level is not the same. But the Secretary of State is a completely different matter.
The weighty, ever-grinning Tsereushnik Mike Pompeo wrote on his Twitter: “I’m indignant at the verdict rendered today to Paul Whelan ... The treatment of the Russian authorities with Paul continues to be terrifying, and we demand his immediate release.”
Well, if it is required, how can it be refused. Although it is possible. And not only possible, but necessary. However, if Americans so want to see Paul at home, with their family, then there are various options that are well known to them. This is primarily an exchange - a normal practice for real gentlemen. Whelan’s lawyer said just that - according to him, there is the possibility of exchanging his client for Viktor Bout or Konstantin Yaroshenko, who are serving their sentences in the United States.
I remind you that Booth spent more than ten years in star-striped dungeons and is a living trophy of American imperialism. His landing was an instructive example for all the enemies of America - wherever you are, you can be kidnapped, arrested and sent to prison for decades. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not hide this - this will be an example to other Buttes who dared to cross the road to the world gendarme.
After the suicide of the USSR, the USA forgot about the principle of reciprocity, and now we have to re-learn it.
Here is our head of the Duma committee, Slutsky, who, incidentally, is involved in the liberation of Bout and Yaroshenko, believes that the conclusion of such agreements requires political will and a separate competence. In anticipation of the presidential election, redneck king Donald Trump could have just shown political will and become the father of the people - to return the American military intelligence to the bosom of America's mother. And Victor will finally return to his homeland, to friends and family after a terrible decade of absence.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.