Interesting that they released Yashin. I wonder if he got asylum from somewhere or if he’s staying in Russia? Neither NPR or The Guardian mentioned anything and I haven’t done any searching yet.

Also, I had no idea who Whelan is so I went and read his wiki page – apparently he’s a former US Marine who got arrested in Russia over charges of espionage. Based on the article I was left with the impression that the charges seem like bullshit, but his FSB buddy thing was, well… pretty weird if nothing else. Apparently he was in Russia for the wedding of a friend who’s also a former Marine, and it somehow struck me as funny that jarheads seem to like Russia