U.S. rejects proposal for spy swap of ex-Marine held in Russia

The United States rejected on Wednesday a suggestion it seek a prisoner swap involving a former U.S. Marine jailed in Russia for nearly a year over spying allegations, and called for his immediate release. Paul Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained by agents from Russia's Federal Security Service in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28 last year. After a U.S. diplomat visited him in jail on Wednesday, the U.S. embassy complained about Whelan's declining health and called Russia's treatment of him "shameful", saying Moscow had refused to allow the diplomat to bring him Thanksgiving dinner.

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