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Russia and the United States have carried out a sensational prisoner exchange today, exchanging a senior Navy soldier imprisoned in Moscow for a pilot convicted of drug trafficking who was serving a long prison sentence in the United States.
The surprise deal included Trevor Reed, an American imprisoned in Russia for three years, which experts say would be difficult to achieve even in peacetime.
Relations between the two countries are at their lowest point in decades since Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Moscow says is in fact “a US war at the hands of Ukraine.”
While Washington has agreed to return Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who was serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison for cocaine trafficking in the US. He was arrested in 2010 in Liberia, Africa from where he was later extradited to the US.
Reed, a former Marine from Texas, was arrested in August 2019 when, according to Russian authorities, he attacked a police officer who was taking him to the car park after a night of drinking alcohol.
He was later sentenced to nine years in prison on other charges, but family members and the U.S. government say he is innocent.
President Biden had met with Reed’s parents this month in Washington where he had informed them of his possible release.
Russia had been demanding the return of Yaroshenko for years and had rejected requests for the release of Reed, whose family said he had been diagnosed with tuberculosis.
The exchange of prisoners took place in a European country. Officials did not say where it happened but flight trackers had identified an official Russian plane flying to Ankara, Turkey.
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