By Elena Teslova
MOSCOW (AA) – A Russian pilot and a former US Marine were released in a prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington on Wednesday.
“As a result of a long negotiation process … a US citizen Trevor Reed, previously convicted in the Russian Federation, was exchanged for a Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison by an American court in 2010,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in 2010 on drug smuggling charges and extradited to the US, where he was serving out a 20-year prison term.
Reed was detained in Russia in 2019 after being apprehended for attacking police officers in Moscow and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Welcoming Reed’s release, US President Joe Biden said in a statement that negotiations for the prisoner swap “required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.”