spying by the fsb. russian s main counter espionage agency. one private russian news agency says an intelligence source says he was arrested in his room five minutes after he accepted a flash drive with a list of employees working at a classified security agency. the report makes reference to his presence on russian social media. the security consultant sought out russian internet users, tracked and selected in advance by american intelligence. cnn can t independently verify the report and the unnamed intelligence source may have an incentive to build this narrative around it. if whelan is convicted of this, true or not, he faces up to 20 years in a russian jail.
pleasure. we now know as well, thanks to u.s. diplomats who have told us this, that he is languishing at the moment in a former kgb prison on the outskirts of moscow awaiting his fate. russian and u.s. officials tell cnn consular access has now been granted to paul whelan, the former u.s. marine held at a prison in moscow on charges of espionage. so far there s been no details on the circumstances of his arrest by the fsb, russia s main counteres pe counter espionage agency. of of whmuch of what we know co from his twin. he was visiting moscow and helping his friend because paul had been to moscow before and could navigate the sites and he was helping to squire some of the american tourists around who were part of the wedding party. reporter: it may have been whelan s long-standing contact
all right. thank you for that. what is russia saying about all of this? let s bring in cnn s matthew chance live in moscow. matthew? reporter: thank you very much. a short statement coming from the fsb, the main counter espionage agency in this country, the equivalent of the fbi saying that he does indeed have the u.s. citizen, paul whel whelan, being detained in moscow on the 28th. he was caught spying is what the brief statement says. we haven t had much information either from the u.s. embassy which is called for consular access to mr. whelan but has not confirmed to us eye been in close contact with them about whether or not that access has been granted. the russians formerly under the vienna convention have 72 hours before they have to grant access. that time has already lapsed. again, it s not clear whether
you. in short, what they re saying is very little beyond the initial statement that they put out when paul whelan was initially detained back on the 28th of december. that s when they said they arrested him. the fsb, russia s main counter espionage agency, saying that a u.s. citizen has been taken into custody who was caught spying in the russian capital. that s as far as their statement goes. in terms of consular access, we know the u.s. has requested that kind of access, and indicated that the russians have 72 hours before they have to grant the access to u.s. diplomats who can interview mr. wleelan about his condition whelan about his condition and the way he s been treated. that 72 hours has lapsed because it s the 2nd of january obviously. and we don t know yet, though, whether that access has been granted. and so there s still concern over that. i mean, close contact with the
right now? it s the lead counterespionage agency in russia. we know he was arrested on december the 28th in the russia capital moscow. the fsb says he was caught spying. beyond that we know very little from the russian authorities point of view as to what s going on, as to the circumstances of his detention as to what they were believe he was doing specifically. so it s been very mysterious the way this has been broken to the world in the way that it was. all right, we re having issues there in moscow with our matthew chance. let s turn to expert analysis on what has been unfolding in russia. i have cnn intelligence ajd and security analyst bob baer. i just want to ask you, do you