‘House is gone. Cars are gone’: Paul Whelan’s life one year after his release from a Russia…

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‘House is gone. Cars are gone’: Paul Whelan’s life one year after his release from a Russian prison

For Paul Whelan, returning to life in the United States after more than half a decade of Russian imprisonment has been “interesting” – and not without its challenges.

“You’re literally starting over,” he told CNN ahead of the one-year anniversary of the sweeping US-Russia prisoner exchange deal that secured his release.

“For people like me who have come home after five-and-a-half years, we really don’t have very much. House is gone. Cars are gone. Employment’s gone. No health insurance,” he said.

His post-traumatic stress disorder gets triggered in hotel rooms, after he was “violently arrested” in one in 2018 while visiting Moscow for a friend’s wedding. It was that arrest on espionage charges that started his nearly six-year nightmare of Russian detention.

'I was not a spy.' 1 year after release from Russia, Paul Whelan details his time in captivity

Friday, Aug. 1 marks one year since Paul Whelan has been free. After being accused of espionage and spending more than five years behind bars in Russia, the Michigan native said his return home has been bittersweet.

Upon his release, it was hailed as a major diplomatic achievement, especially since he was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian labor camp. But, he said, getting back to a normal life has been difficult to say the least.

I met up with Whelan in Manchester, where he now lives with his parents, and is trying to reclaim his former life.

Whelan, once a corporate security executive from Novi, was taken into custody in Moscow in December 2018 while he was attending a friend's wedding. Russian authorities accused him of spying – charges the U.S. government has called baseless from day one.

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