US, Russia exchange prisoners: Ex-US marine and Russian drug trafficker return home

Russia and the US have carried out a prisoner exchange, exchanging a marine veteran imprisoned in Moscow for a convicted Russian drug trafficker serving a long prison sentence in America, according to a senior US official and the Russian Foreign Ministry. Even in peacetime, the surprise deal would have been a noteworthy diplomatic manoeuvre. However, it became remarkable because of the fact that it happened as Russia's war with Ukraine had driven relations with the US to their lowest point in decades.

Joe Biden said the negotiations that resulted in the prisoner swap "required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly," but he applauded the release of Trevor Reed, a former marine from Texas. Reed was apprehended in the summer of 2019 by Russian authorities, who said he assaulted a police officer in Moscow during a night of heavy drinking. He was ultimately sentenced to nine years in prison, despite his family's claims of innocence and the US government's description of his detention as unjust.

US returns Russian pilot arrested on charges of trying to smuggle drugs

The US agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year federal prison sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the US. Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the US. For years, Russia had wanted his return while also refusing pleas from high-ranking US officials to free Reed, who was approaching 1,000 days in detention and whose health had recently deteriorated, according to his family.

For a variety of reasons, including his health, a senior US official described Reed's case as one of "utmost priority" for the Biden administration. Yaroshenko, on the other hand, whose sentence has now been remitted, had already served most of his sentence, according to the official.

The exchange of Reed and Yaroshenko was "the outcome of a long negotiation process," according to the Russian foreign ministry. Notably, the prisoner swap is the highest-profile release of an American deemed wrongfully detained abroad during the Biden administration, and it comes despite the fact that families of detainees who have met with administration officials over the last year have described them as opposed to the idea of an exchange.

(With agency inputs, Image: AP)