MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters he is unaware of the media interview in which US national Paul Whelan, convicted and imprisoned in Russia for espionage, complained of harassment by correctional officers and extortion attempts against him.

"Frankly speaking, we don’t know anything about it. I can’t tell you anything in this regard," Peskov said, adding that he "did not know there was such an interview."

Former US career intelligence officer Paul Whelan was detained in Moscow on December 28, 2018, while taking possession of a flash drive containing data on the personnel of a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) unit. He was eventually sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges.