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Jan. 11 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden has met with the sister of Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who was detained by Russia in late 2018 on charges of espionage, the White House said, after the Kremlin rejected recent U.S. proposals to free him. Biden met Elizabeth Whelan on Wednesday "to discuss the administration's continued efforts to secure Paul's release," the White House said in a statement, that added National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was in attendance.
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Following the private meeting, Biden called Paul Whelan's parents, it said.
Paul Whelan was arrested in late December 2018 while visiting Moscow to attend the wedding of a fellow Marine who was marrying a Russian national. Whelan, a retired Marine himself, was the director of global security and investigations for international auto parts maker BorgWarner when detained.
He was then convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison in June of 2020 following a trial that he derided as "political theatre."
The United States considers Paul Whelan to be wrongfully detained by Russia, a determination that prompts various federal government departments to work to secure his release.
Securing his release has been a priority of the Biden administration, and late last month, the State Department released a statement to mark five years since Paul Whelan was first detained to demand that he be freed.
The State Department said Paul Whelan has spent years laboring in a Russian penal colony and that in the past year he has been assaulted by other prisoners and harassed by Russian state-run media.
"We will not rest until he is safely back with his family where he belongs," the Dec. 27 statement read.
The meeting was held after Russia last month rejected what State Department spokesman Matthew Miller described as "significant proposals" to secure the release of Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in the country last march, also on espionage charges.
"We think those proposals should have been accepted. They weren't," Miller told reporters during a Dec. 19 press conference.
"We made one as recently as a few weeks ago, and we will continue to look for ways to engage with the Russian government to bring them home."
The Biden administration tried but failed to secure Paul Whelan's release in December of 2022, when the United States exchanged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for WMBA star Brittney Griner, who was jailed in Russia in February of that year on drug smuggling charges.
According to the state department, the Biden administration has secured the release of more than 40 wrongful detainees.
"Since the beginning of the administration, the president has been personally engaged in the effort to secure the release of Americans held hostages and wrongfully detained around the world, including Paul Whelan and fellow American Evan Gershkovich," the White House said Wednesday.
