“We constantly remind them of the activation of the mechanism of the 1983 Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons,” RIA Novosti Ryabkov quotes.
He explained that "this is not an exchange, you know, for checkpoint Charlie - someone was exchanged for someone there."
According to him, "in the situation specifically with Paul Whelan, there are absolutely no grounds for putting him in this context, because he was convicted under an article that interprets his actions as a very serious crime."
On June 15, 2020, the court found Whelan guilty of espionage against Russia and sentenced him to 16 years in a maximum security colony.
In December 2018, the FSB announced the arrest of Whelan during an espionage rally in Moscow.