MOSCOW, June 16./TASS/. The possibility of exchanging US citizen Paul Whelan, accused of espionage and sentenced to 16 years behind bars, for Russian nationals incarcerated in American prisons is not being looked into, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told journalists on Tuesday.

"The participation of Mr. Whelan in such schemes is not discussed," the senior diplomat said. There are no grounds for speaking about ‘politicization’ of Whelan’s case and the verdict, Ryabkov pointed out. "He is guilty of committing a serious crime, he received a long jail term," he added.

"Prison terms are much longer for similar deeds in other countries. We don’t see any reasons here to say that this or that decision made by a Moscow court was politicized," he stressed.

On Monday, the Moscow City Court found Whelan guilty of spying against Russia and sentenced him to 16 years in prison. US citizen Paul Whelan, who also holds British, Canadian and Irish citizenship, was detained by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) on December 28, 2018 in Moscow while on an alleged spy mission. A criminal investigation was launched against him on espionage charges carrying a punishment of up to 20 years behind bars.

Whelan’s attorney Vladimir Zherebenkov told TASS on Monday that a deal to swap Paul Whelan for Russian nationals Viktor Bout or Konstantin Yaroshenko jailed in the US, could be looked into after the sentence came into effect.