American businessman Paul Whelan He has been held in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison on espionage charges since December 28. Nicholas Danilovthe retired director of Northeastern's journalism program, can relate to Whelan's plight.
In 1986, when Danilov was an American journalist based in Moscow, he was held in the same prison for two weeks on false charges of spying for the Soviet Union. His case created a international uproar.
“I would assume he's going through hell,” Danilov said of Whelan, who was in solitary confinement. “I would assume he's basically scared and doesn't know what's going to happen next. If you're sitting in a cell, especially solitary confinement, you have no idea—at least at first—what they're going to throw at you. If you are clean and pure, you must be very determined to assert your innocence.”
Danilov has given numerous interviews to compare their parallel incidents since news of Whelan's arrest broke last week. In each case, the American's detention followed the arrest of a prominent Soviet or Russian in the United States. Daniloff notes, however, “a big difference” between the responses of Presidents Donald Trump and Ronald Reaganwho in 1986 conducted the Cold War against the Soviet Union.
“Ronald Reagan, who had his problems with Moscow, very quickly declared that I was taken hostage and asked for my release,” Danilov said. “The United States Senate and House of Representatives passed resolutions demanding my release.”
The White House's strongest statement on behalf of Whelan came from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said: “If detention is not appropriate, we will demand his immediate return.”
“Pompeo's statement was good,” Danilov said. “But essentially the administration has been silent on the Whelan case. In one sense it is not surprising, because the United States is going through a lot of introspection, having to deal with issues on the southern border of the wall. There's so much news going around today that Whelan's case is hard to break.”
Three decades ago, Danilov was the head of the office US News and World Report in Moscow when he met in a wooded lane in the Lenin Hills a long-standing spring. Shortly after taking a packet of photographs showing Soviet troops in Afghanistan, Danilov was arrested by half a dozen men, handcuffed and taken in a minibus to prison, where he was confronted with the contents of the packet: Soviet military maps marked “secret ».
You can never really be sure how you will respond unless you are in the military and have been trained in what to do as a prisoner. I'm interested in what happens to Whelan because, after all, he is an ex-Marine. I wonder how tough a guy he is.
Nicholas Daniloff, former director of the School of Journalism
In the present case, Whelan was accused of possessing a USB drive that contained information about employees of a secret Russian facility. Whelan holds four passports (for the United States, Canada, Britain and Ireland) and was active on Russian social media, which likely caught the attention of Russian intelligence, according to Daniloff. Whelan, head of global security for an auto parts supplier in Michigan, was in Moscow to attend the wedding of a former Marine at the time of his arrest. His family insists he is not a spy.
Daniloff wonders how Whelan is coping with isolation and interrogation. As a foreign correspondent, Danilov had long prepared himself for the possibility of being set up as a pawn in the Cold War.
“You can never really be sure how you're going to respond unless you're in the military and you've been trained in what to do as a prisoner,” Danilov said. “I'm interested in what's going on with Whelan because, after all, he's an ex-Marine. I wonder how tough a guy he is.”
Danilov was interrogated every day by Valery Sergadeyev, a colonel at KGB. He drew strength from prison visits by his wife, Ruth, who told him of the international response she had inspired by speaking on his behalf. His interrogator also informed Daniloff that the West was outraged by the imprisonment of an American journalist.
A year after his release, Soviet diplomats admitted to Daniloff that he had been captured to force a possible prisoner exchange with Gennady Zakharova Soviet physicist who had been arrested for espionage in the United States.
In Whelan's case, however, Daniloff questions whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will seek more than a simple exchange revolving around Russian ancestry. Maria Butinawho last year pleaded guilty to conspiracy to be an illegal foreign agent.
“It may not be a one-for-one exchange that the Russians have in mind,” Danilov said. “There are two or three Russians in American custody today that Putin would love to save.”
After his release, Danilov turned down an assignment from the White House US News and World Report to write a book Two lives, one Russia. He joined the Northeastern faculty in 1989 and served as director of the journalism program from 1992 to 1999. He retired in 2014.
Danilov said he did not suffer prolonged stress because his prison term was relatively short. He returned to Russia several times, beginning with a trip to visit friends in Makhachkala, Dagestan, in the middle of Chechen war.
“It was an interesting experience,” Daniloff recalls. “I was specifically going to a place where the Moscow authorities discouraged anyone from going. I remember not registering with the police within three days. There was something wrong with it.”
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