Moscow bans ‘spy’ visitors from speaking English

Visitors to a jailed former US Marine charged with spying have been banned from talking to him in English even though he speaks little Russian. Alexander Ionov, a prison watchdog official who visited Paul Whelan on Friday, said: ‘‘Detention facility staff banned us from speaking to him in English, possibly because they decided that we might talk about things that they would prefer us not to and they wouldn’t understand us. They don’t speak English themselves.’’ Whelan, 48, a dual US-British citizen, is being kept in Lefortovo, a former KGB prison.