CNN intelligence analyst and former CIA operative Bob Baer said on Wednesday that Russia was holding American Paul Whelan hostage, as a 'furious' Vladimir Putin exacted revenge for the arrest of convicted Russian spy Maria Butina.
"I think it's a diplomatic crisis for Trump and this administration," Baer said after host Brianna Keilar noted the State Department had been "tight-lipped" about the arrest. "Frankly I believe this man is a hostage, and so they are asking themselves 'why have the Russians at this point taken in an innocent American and holding him as a spy?' It makes no sense."
Baer also said he didn't think Whelan was a spy.
"I know Russian operations and I know they're run very carefully," he said. "They do not take contractors, send them to Moscow to commit an act of espionage. It doesn't happen."
Keilar noted that Whelan's arrest came two weeks after Butina pled guilty to conspiring against the United States, and asked if there might be some connection. Baer agreed wholeheartedly.
"I think Putin is furious about her," Baer said, laughing at the Russian president's claim that he didn't even know Ms. Butina. "She wasn't an agent so to speak, and she didn't have diplomatic immunity, and she wasn't a proper spy."
"But the relationship with Russian intelligence is tenuous and he's mad about it," he added.
Watch the video below.
