‘Don’t use ex-marine as a pawn’

UK warns Russia against diplomatic chess games

Britain warned Russia against playing “diplomatic chess games” after Paul Whelan, a former US Marine who reportedly also carries Canadian and Irish passports, was charged with espionage.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Britain had offered consular access to Whelan, who was detained in Moscow last week, but had not been able to visit him yet.

“We are giving him every support that we can, but we don’t agree with individuals being used in diplomatic chess games,” Hunt told the BBC.

“It is desperately worrying, not just for the individual but their family, and we are extremely worried about him and his family as we hear this news,” he said.

US ambassador Jon Huntsman visited Whelan at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow on Wednesday.

The United States has been cautious in its public comments on the case, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying earlier that Washington was trying to learn more about the situation.

Whelan, 48, was arrested last Friday “while carrying out an act of espionage”, according to Russia’s FSB domestic security service.

The charge carries a maximum jail sentence of 20 years.

US news reports painted Whelan as an unlikely spy with a chequered history who most recently worked for the security service of an international auto parts manufacturer.

Whelan was court-martialled by the Marine Corps in 2008 on charges of larceny and passing bad checks, The New York Times said, an offence that in most cases disqualifies candidates from foreign intelligence work.

He was arrested while attending an American friend’s wedding to a Russian woman at Moscow’s upscale Metropol Hotel, according to his twin brother David. — AFP