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u.s. would never give up on whelan. moscow is treating whelan different than griner, totally illegitimate reasons. whelan said he was surprised that he had been left behind. jim sciutto reports. >> reporter: paul whelan's odyssey in russia's criminal justice system began on december 28th, 2018. former marine, he was arrested in moscow during a trip for the wedding of a fellow marine to a russian woman. >> ended up taking a group of them as part of their tour through the kremlin. >> russia's federal security service accused him of being a spy. whelan had visited russia before, including as early as 2006 while on a two-week deployment from iraq. whelan moved to the u.s. as a child. he has u.s., canadian, british, irish citizenship. whelan joined the marine

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part of russia and as soon as he was given the u.s.b. stick and put on his pocket, the door was open by the fsb, he was arrested and that was it. >> on june 15th, 2020, whelan was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in prison. in the years since his arrest the u.s. government has also maintained whelan's innocence and made repeated attempts to secure his release. today jennifer hansler spoke to whelan by phone from the penal colony where he's being held. >> i have to say i'm greatly disappointed more has not been done to secure my release, especially as the four-year anniversary of my arrest is coming up. i was arrested for a crime that never occurred. i'm happy that brittney is going home today and that trevor went home when he did, but i don't understand why i'm still sitting here. >> jim sciutto, cnn, washington.

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reserves in 1984. he did multiple tours. he was accused by the military of attempting to steal more than $10,000. he was court martialed and discharged for bad conduct two years later. after the military whelan worked in corporate security, first as a senior manager in the global security firm kelly services and in 2017 he began working for an automotive components supplier. he became director of global security. according to his brother whelan was a world traveller with friends in russia. he was active on russian social media. after his arrest russia claimed whelan was caught, quote, red handed with a flash drive with state secrets. whelan maintains he was set up. >> one of the friends he had made in russia visited him the night of the wedding and gave paul a usb stick and said they were photos from the previous trip they had been on to another

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brittney's in good spirits. shea's relieved to finally be heading home. >> reporter: the u.s. wanted to trade bout for griner and american paul whelan but russian refused. in an exclusive interview whelan told cnn he's surprised he wasn't included. >> i am greatly disappointed that more has not been done to secure my release. i'm happy that brittney is going home today and that trevor went home when he did, but i don't understand why i'm still sitting here. my bags are packed. i'm ready to go home. >> whelan told cnn that the russians see him at a higher level than griner. he's been charged with espionage and sentenced to 16 years. >> this was not a choice of which american to bring home. the choice was one or none. i wholeheartedly wish we could have brought paul home today on the same plane as brittney. >> reporter: the question is how

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russian forces several years ago and is sentenced to several years as well in a penal colony. cnn was able to get an exclusive access and exclusive interview to whelan where he expressed his concern about president biden's ability to get him out. he expressed russia sees him as a more important, more valuable prisoner than griner was perhaps. the biden administration says for its part there was no option to get whelan out in this specific exchange but that they continue to do everything they can to secure his release. just another reminder of how complicated these negotiations are and yet again, it is a diplomatic victory for president biden, but he's still vowing to try to get whelan out as well. kim. >> we'll stay on this story throughout the morning. thank you so much, selma abdelaziz in london. we'll have much more on the prisoner swap including a look at the u.s. marine veteran left behind in russia.

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