The president of United States, Joe Bidenconfirmed this Wednesday the release of the American Trevor Reed, who had been detained in Russia since 2019, in a prisoner exchange with Moscow.
This was indicated by Biden in a statement in which he announced that Reed was “free” after his three years of detention in Russia.
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“The negotiations that brought Trevor home required difficult decisions that I did not make lightly. His safe return from him is proof of the priority my Administration places on bringing home Americans taken prisoner and wrongfully detained abroad,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.
In counterpart, Washington released Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, in prison since 2010 after receiving a 20-year prison sentence for drug trafficking in the US, a senior Biden government official confirmed in a call with reporters.
The 29-year-old American, a University of North Texas student and former Marine, arrived in Moscow in May 2019 on a tourist visa and was living in his girlfriend’s apartment.
Reed allegedly resisted, while intoxicated, his arrest by the Police and assaulted some agents, something that the American has denied.
“Our family has been living a nightmare. Today our prayers have been answered and Trevor is safe and on his way back to the US,” his family said in a statement.
The prisoner exchange marks a rare moment of diplomatic rapprochement in full confrontation between Washington and Moscow over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The senior US official stressed, however, that the talks with Russia were “strictly” limited to the release of the prisoners, so The war in Ukraine and the forceful economic sanctions applied by the US and its Western partners against Moscow were not discussed.
In a statement, the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken“welcomed this important release”, but insisted on the request for the release of other US citizens detained in the US, as is the case of Paul Whelan arrested in Moscow in 2018 on charges of espionage.
“We remain committed to securing the freedom of all American citizens wrongfully detained abroad,” added Blinken. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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