WASHINGTON (AP) – Russia and the United States have made a dramatic exchange of prisoners, exchanging a Marine veteran imprisoned in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long sentence in the United States, the two countries said Wednesday.
The surprise deal with Trevor Reed, an American jailed for nearly three years, would have been a remarkable diplomatic maneuver even in peacetime, but it was even more unusual because it was made as Russia’s war with Ukraine strengthened relations with the United States. its lowest point in decades.
“Today our prayers have been answered and Trevor is returning safely to the United States,” Reed’s family said in a statement.
President Joe Biden, who met with Reed’s parents in Washington last month, trumpeted Reed’s release, noting in detail that “the negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.” Russia’s foreign ministry described the exchange as “the result of a long negotiation process”.
Many other Americans are still in prison in Russia, including WNBA star Britney Greerner and Michigan Corporate Security Executive Director Paul Whelan.
Reed, a former Texas Marine, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he attacked an officer while he was taken by police to a police station after a night of heavy drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, although his family pleaded not guilty, and the US government described him as unjustly detained and expressed concern about his deteriorating health.
The United States has agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States after being arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the United States.
Russia has been seeking Yaroshenko’s return for years, while rejecting requests from senior US officials to release Reid, who is approaching his 1,000th day in custody and whose health has recently deteriorated, according to his family.
A senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, described Reed’s case as one of the “top priorities” for the Biden administration, including because of his health, which he told the family said. includes a diagnosis of tuberculosis.
“It was a difficult decision, but we thought it was worth it,” the official said.
The two prisoners were exchanged in a European country. Although officials would not say where the transfer took place, in the hours before it happened, trade flight tracks identified a plane belonging to Russia’s Federal Security Service as flying to Ankara, Turkey. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons also updated its website overnight to reflect that Yaroshenko is no longer in custody.
Reed was on his way back to the United States with Roger Cartsens, the US government’s special envoy for hostages.
The prisoner exchange marks the biggest release during the Biden administration of an American deemed illegally detained abroad, and comes even when the families of detainees who have met with administration officials in the past year describe them as cool to the idea. for exchange.
The U.S. government generally does not accept such exchanges for fear that it may encourage foreign governments to take additional Americans as prisoners as a way to obtain concessions and avoid potential false equivalence between an unjustly detained American – whom U.S. officials believe was Reed – and a properly convicted criminal.
In this case, however, the US official said the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served a long part of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted.
The Reed family thanked Biden for “the decision to bring Trevor home”, as well as other administration officials, and Bill Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, whom the family said had traveled to Moscow in the run-up to the war. in Ukraine in the hope of securing Reid’s release.
The Reed family has also worked with consultant Jonathan Franks, who has been involved in other recent high-profile publications, including the case of Michael White, a Navy veteran released from Iran in 2020.
The release has no direct impact on the cases of other Americans held by Russia. Among them are Greener, who was detained in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative, and Whelan, who was detained on espionage charges that his family said were fake.
U.S. officials described Whelan as unjustly detained, and Biden said Wednesday that “we will not stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving embrace of family and friends.”
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