Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in the US in 2011, has been exchanged for former US Marine Trevor Reed, the Russian Foreign Ministry informed, cited by state news agency RIA Novosti.
The prisoner swap took place on April 27 “as a result of long negotiations,” the Russian ministry stated.
Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko was detained in Liberia and extradited to the US in 2010. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug smuggling charges.
Yaroshenko's wife said that the swap was held in Turkey.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in the run-up to the June 2021 summit with his US counterpart Joe Biden that they might discuss a prisoner swap between Russia and the US. US citizens Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed were serving jail time in Russia at that moment, while Russian nationals Viktor Bout and Konstantin Yaroshenko were imprisoned in the US.
In July 2020, a Moscow court sentenced former US Marine and student of the University of North Texas Trevor Reed to nine years behind bars for assaulting police officers during his detention. In 2019, Reed was detained after his neighbours complained of a dispute between Reed and two women. According to the prosecution, Reed attacked a police car driver and a police officer while en route to the station. The US national said that he had been partying that night, had drunk a lot of vodka and does not remember what happened.
