Marine for drug dealer: US and Russia held a prisoner exchange

Russia and the United States conducted a surprise prisoner swap at a time of high tension, exchanging a Marine imprisoned by Moscow for a convicted Russian drug dealer serving a lengthy prison sentence in America, reports Yahoo.

Photo: Shutterstock

A deal involving Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned for almost three years, would have been a notable diplomatic maneuver even in peacetime. This was all the more surprising given that Russia's war with Ukraine had brought Moscow's relations with the United States to its lowest point in decades.

The US, for its part, returned Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who served a 20-year sentence in a Connecticut prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the US after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the US. The Justice Department described him as "a seasoned international drug trafficker" who conspired to distribute thousands of kilos of cocaine around the world.

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Despite Reed's release, other Americans remain in Russian prisons, including WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security chief Paul Whelan.

The exchange took place in Turkey, according to Reed's father, Joey Reed.

“The American plane stopped next to the Russian plane, and they did a prisoner exchange at the same time, like in a movie,” he said.

The exchange seemed unlikely. A senior Biden administration official warned that the talks were focused on certain individuals and did not represent a change in the US government's condemnation of Russia's violence against Ukraine.

“Where we can discuss issues of mutual interest, we will try to talk to the Russians without in any way changing our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine,” the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

President Joe Biden, who met with Reed's parents in Washington last month, announced Reed's release and noted, without elaborating, that "the negotiations that enabled us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly." The Russian Foreign Ministry called the exchange "the result of a long negotiation process."

Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine from Texas, was arrested in the summer of 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer as police drove him to the police station after a night of drinking. He was later sentenced to nine years in prison, although his family maintained his innocence and the US government called him unfairly detained and expressed concern about his failing health.

Russia has been pushing for Yaroshenko's return for years, while rebuffing requests from senior US officials to release Reed, whose health has recently been deteriorating.

A senior US official called Reed's case one of the "highest priorities" for the Biden administration. His family said Reed's poor health included symptoms of tuberculosis.

“It was a difficult decision, but we thought it was worth it,” the official said.

While officials did not say where the transmission took place, hours before it happened, commercial flight tracking systems determined that the plane, owned by Russia's Federal Security Service, was flying to Ankara, Turkey. The US Bureau of Prisons also updated its website to say that Yaroshenko is no longer in custody.

Reed was returning to the US with Roger Cartsens, the President's Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs.

"Our prayers have been answered today and Trevor is returning safely to the United States," Reid's family said in a statement.

The prisoner exchange was the most notable release during the Biden administration of an American who was thought to have been mistakenly detained abroad.

The U.S. government generally does not support such exchanges for fear that it might encourage foreign governments to capture additional Americans in order to gain concessions and avoid a possible false equivalence between an unfairly detained American who U.S. officials believed Reed was and a properly convicted felon. .

In this case, however, the US decided the deal made sense in part because Yaroshenko had already served most of his prison sentence, which has now been commuted.

The Reid family thanked Biden "for making the decision to bring Trevor home," as well as other administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the UN, who the family said traveled to Moscow hours before the start of the war in Ukraine. having hopes of Reed's release.

Reed's release had no immediate impact on the cases of other Americans detained by Russia. For example, Griner was detained in February after Russian authorities said a search of her bag found cannabis derivatives. Whelan is being held on a spying charge that his family believes to be false.

U.S. officials called Whelan unfairly detained, with Biden saying on April 27 that "we will not stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends."

Last month, Reed's parents demonstrated in front of the White House in hopes of meeting the president.

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“We believe that meeting with the president is what caused this to happen,” Joey Reed said. “This is what we talked about all the time - if we could just talk to the president, he is such a sympathetic person.”

When he saw his son, the father said: "I want to hug him and not let go."

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