US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone on Wednesday with wrongfully detained American Paul Whelan, who is being held in a remote prison camp in Russia, a source familiar told CNN.
The top US diplomat told Whelan to "keep the faith and we're doing everything we can to bring you home as soon as possible," the source said of the call. This the second time Blinken has spoken to Whelan, who has been detained in Russia for more than four years, the source said.
Whelan is able to make calls from his prison camp in Mordovia, but the source would not get into further details about how the call to Blinken came about.
The conversation comes as the Biden administration continues to reiterate to Russia the serious proposal that they put on the table for Whelan's release more than eight months ago. Russia has not responded in a substantive way, two administration officials told CNN.
Despite the Whelan proposal "absolutely" still being one that the US considers a live offer, explained one senior administration official, the lack of a substantive Russian response -- along with the wrongful detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich earlier this year -- has forced the US to continue efforts to search for another offer to put on the table.
The senior administration official said that it "remains a necessity that we figure out how to resolve this."
"If we can't make it happen based on what's available to us now, we'll need to figure out what that takes so we can bring our people home," the official said.
The Biden administration continues to scour the globe for offers that could entice Russia to release both of the wrongfully detained Americans, as CNN reported earlier this year. The US does not currently have any high-level Russian spies in its custody, current and former US officials say, driving the need to turn to allies for help.
Elizabeth Whelan told CNN last week that she hoped that efforts to secure her brother's release would move more quickly.
"This glacial pace -- I'm not sure that we are yet at the point where it can be said that everything has been done to try to get Paul home," she said.
"As Paul's sister, I feel this sense of urgency and frustration very deeply. I don't want to make it sound as if people don't care, because they definitely do. But what is needed is a heightened awareness of the fact that time may be running out," she said. "We do not know that the Russians will continue to discuss how to do an exchange or whatever it might be for Paul, into the future."
