On Wednesday, the United States (US) received former marine Trevor Reed in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the arrival of Reed but said the decision to let go of Yaroshenko was not an easy one to make. In this regard, he applauded the work done by Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens and US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan. Biden affirmed that his administration will continue working on the rescue of wrongfully detained Americans such as Paul Whelan, who faces espionage charges in Russia.
In an interview with ABC News, Reed’s parents voiced their concern for the former Marine’s health, saying, “He looked like he could hardly walk, he looked like he’d been walking shackled.” In 2019, then-30-year-old Reed was visiting his girlfriend in Moscow and was arrested for assaulting a police officer while drunk.
Video of the US and Russia swapping former marine Trevor Reed, formerly imprisoned in Russia, for convicted drug smuggler Alexei Yaroshenko on a runway in Turkey. Real bridge of spies Cold War vibes pic.twitter.com/5iiURYie83
— max seddon (@maxseddon) April 27, 2022
Another Biden administration official elaborated on the US-Russia prisoner exchange, saying Yaroshenko was convicted of “conspiring to import cocaine” but had already served most of his sentence. The official made it clear that negotiations with Russia were “strictly limited” to the exchange of the two prisoners. “It [the exchange] represents no change, zero, to our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine,” they stressed.
Additionally, the official said that the US is continuing efforts to secure the release of other Americans held in Russia like Whelan and female basketball star Brittney Griner, who is the most high-profile American to be arrested in Russia in recent times. Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was arrested earlier this year for the possession of cannabis oil, which can result in a ten-year sentence.
Footage of Trevor Reed taken to #Moscow's Vnukovo airport, before flying home to the US. He had been jailed since 2019. when he was convicted with attacking a policeman. US and his family had insisted that his jailing was unjustly pic.twitter.com/rDcU8hufFI
— Guy Elster (@guyelster) April 27, 2022
Meanwhile, after securing the release of Yaroshenko, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the Russian pilot was “victim to a provocation staged by [the] US intelligence agencies.” Moreover, Moscow accused Washington of “discrimination and degrading treatment,” claiming that the US government denied him access to proper healthcare during his 12-year imprisonment.
Echoing these claims, in an interview with the Russian state-owned TV channel Rossiya-1, Yaroshenko accused the US of torturing him. “It’s about what the US authorities were doing to me during all these 12 years after my abduction, after I was tortured. They did not treat me in the best way in American prisons,” he revealed while answering a question about his health.