In December of 2018, an Iraq war veteran called Paul Whelan flew to Moscow to attend the wedding of a friend he'd known in the Marine Corps. Days after he arrived - six days, we think - Whelan was arrested in his room at the Metropol Hotel and charged with spying. Russian authorities claimed Whelan had accepted a flash drive loaded with classified information from an intel agent in Russia. He was put on trial and he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage.
