He was familiar to numerous Russians who have known him or interacted with him on social media over the past decade. They said he seemed to pop up every six months or so and enjoyed traveling around Russia, especially by train. Unusually for an occasional visitor to Russia, Mr. Whelan had an account on Vkontakte, the Russian version of Facebook, for about a decade. The account showed that he was last active at 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 28, the day that the Federal Security Service, Russia’s domestic security and intelligence agency, said he was arrested. There has been widespread speculation that Russia seized Mr. Whelan to exchange him for Maria Butina, a Russian citizen jailed in the United States.

Source: New York Times January 03, 2019 15:09 UTC