Paul Whelan, a former US Marine arrested in Russia on espionage charges, was visiting Moscow over the holidays to attend a wedding when he suddenly disappeared, his brother said on Tuesday.
Whelan, 48, who is head of global security for a Michigan-based auto parts supplier, was arrested on Friday.
In announcing the arrest three days later, the Russian Federal Security Service said that he was caught “during an espionage operation,” but gave no details.
“We are deeply concerned for his safety and well-being,” his family said in a statement that his brother, David Whelan, posted on Twitter.
“His innocence is undoubted and we trust that his rights will be respected,” it said.
The Russian spying charges carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
David Whelan said in an interview that his brother had been to Russia several times previously, so when a fellow former Marine was planning a wedding in Moscow with a Russian woman, he was asked to come along to help out.
The morning of his arrest, he had taken a group of wedding guests on a tour of the Kremlin museums, his brother said, adding that the last time that anyone heard from him was at about 5pm and then he failed to show up that evening for the wedding.
“It was extraordinarily out of character,” he said.
The family feared he had been mugged or was in a car accident, David Whelan said, and it was when searching the Internet on Monday that he learned of the arrest.
“I was looking for any stories about dead Americans in Moscow, so in a way, it was better than finding out that he had died,” he said.
The US Department of State on Monday said it had received formal notification from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the arrest and was pushing for consular access.
The family was told by the US embassy in Moscow that they have not been able to speak to Paul Whelan, David Whelan said, adding that he had no idea why his brother was targeted by Russia.
Paul Whelan had traveled to Russia in the past for work and to visit friends that he had met on social networks, his brother added.
The arrest comes as US-Russian ties are severely strained, in part over Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
A Russian gun-rights activist, Maria Butina, is in US custody after admitting that she acted as a secret agent for the Kremlin in trying to infiltrate conservative US political groups as then-US presidential candidate Donald Trump was campaigning.
She pleaded guilty last month to a conspiracy charge as part of a deal with federal prosecutors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the case is fabricated and that Butina entered the guilty plea because of the threat of a long prison sentence.
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