- Reed was convicted of endangering the lives of Russian police
- Yaroshenko was convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine
- The United States is also working to release another American detained in Russia
WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) – Former US Marine Trevor Reed has returned to the United States, his spokesman said Thursday after being released from Russia during a prisoner exchange that took place amid tense bilateral relations. decades during the war. in Ukraine.
Reed was released on Wednesday in place of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.
The exchange was not part of broader diplomatic talks and does not represent a change in the US approach to Ukraine, US officials said. Russian-American relations were at their worst since the Cold War era, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and subsequent Western sanctions on Moscow.
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Reed from Texas has returned to the United States, his spokesman said, without immediately confirming where he had entered the country.
His parents said earlier that he would be taken to a military hospital for observation. Senior US officials say the 30-year-old man was in a “good mood”.
“Today we welcome Trevor Reed home and celebrate his return to the family, which he missed so much,” President Joe Biden said in a statement before Reed’s arrival, noting parents’ concerns about their son’s health.
“The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly,” Biden added.
Asked later Wednesday how he managed to raise the issue of Reid’s detention amid wider tensions with Russia over Ukraine, Biden said: “I did it. I picked him up. I picked it up three months ago.
Reed was convicted in Russia in 2019 of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow. The United States called the trial against him a “theater of the absurd.”
U.S. officials say Biden has commuted the sentence of Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was arrested by U.S. special forces in Liberia in 2010 and convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Russia offered to exchange prisoners for Yaroshenko in July 2019 in exchange for the release of every American.
The exchange took place in Turkey, and the United States thanked Turkey, a NATO ally, for its assistance in the exchange. Russian news agencies reported that Yaroshenko then flew from Ankara to Sochi and finally to Moscow. Russia 1, Russia’s main national news channel, showed a video of Yaroshenko being hugged by his wife and daughter, who were jumping up and down with joy, on the runway at Moscow airport.
Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said they were working to release another American detained in Russia, Paul Whelan, also a former Marine.
Joey and Paula Reed, Trevor Reed’s parents, thanked Biden and others, saying in a statement that “the president’s action may have saved Trevor’s life.”
His father, Joey, later told reporters he had two phone calls with his son on Wednesday.
Former US infantryman Trevor Reed, who was detained in 2019 and charged with assaulting police officers, was escorted before a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, March 11, 2020. REUTERS / Tatiana Makeeva / File photo
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“She didn’t sound like him (on the first call). On the second call, he sounded more like himself. He must have gotten some fluids and food in it. He was joking, “said Joey Reed.
A video on Russian state television, broadcast on CNN, shows Reed looking thin and wearing a dark coat, supported on both sides by men in camouflage. Russian state media described the video as showing Reed at an airport in Russia.
“He looks awful to us. As his parents, we know he doesn’t look well,” Paula Reed told CNN in front of their home in Granbury, Texas.
“The American plane stopped next to the Russian one, and they were both walking, as you can see in the movies,” Joey Reed told CNN.
Biden met with Joey and Paula Reed on March 30. The following week, the parents said the prisoner exchange seemed to be the only way to get Reid back home, and called on the White House to take all possible steps.
The months of intense diplomacy that led to Reed’s release focused strictly on securing his freedom and were not the beginning of discussions on other issues, senior Biden officials said. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the exchange had followed a long negotiation process.
Russian news agencies reported on April 4 that Reed had ended a hunger strike and was being treated at his prison’s medical center. The prison service said Reed went on a hunger strike on March 28 to protest disciplinary action against him.
Reed’s parents said at the time that he had been exposed to a prisoner with active tuberculosis in December. The prison service said Reed had tested negative for tuberculosis many times.
The Reed family said their son would tell his story when he was ready.
“We would respectfully ask for some confidentiality as we look at the countless health problems caused by the miserable conditions he was subjected to in his Russian Gulag,” they said.
Biden said his administration would continue to work for the release of Whelan and others. Whelan has been arrested on espionage charges, which he denies resembling political kidnapping.
Whelan’s family has said they are worried that the deal with Russia on Yaroshenko obscures the prospects for Whelan’s release.
“Is President Biden’s failure to bring Paul home an acknowledgment that some cases are too difficult to resolve?” They said in a statement. “Who will be saved is the choice of the president.”
American basketball star Britney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was detained at Moscow airport on February 17 when a search of her luggage revealed numerous cannabis oil vape cartridges. She faces up to 10 years in prison.
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Reports by Doina Chiaku, Humeira Pamuk, Simon Lewis, Susan Heavy, Trevor Hunick in Washington, Barbara Goldberg in New York, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Anirud Saligrama in Bengaluru; Edited by Will Dunham, Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler
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