Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine who was serving nine years in a Russian penal colony has been released as part of a prisoner exchange, according to reports.
The Russian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that “as a result of a lengthy negotiation process,” Reed had been exchanged for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
The U.S. agreed to return Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year sentence in Connecticut for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. after he was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S.
Reed, from Texas, was arrested in 2019 after Russian authorities said he assaulted an officer while being driven by police to a police station. His family maintained his innocence and the U.S. said he had been unjustly detained.
His parents, Joey and Paula Reed, said that their son’s health had been deteriorating and that they feared they would never see him again.
His release would have been difficult diplomatically in peace time, but was even more of a surprise given that Russia’s war with Ukraine has pushed ties between Moscow and Washington to their lowest point in decades.
“Today our prayers have been answered and Trevor is safely on his way back to the United States,” Reed’s family said in a statement.
Reed, 30, from Hood County, Texas, had faced deteriorating health at the IK-12 penal colony in the Kostroma region, around 200 miles east of Moscow.
He went on a hunger strike in November 2021 to protest his conviction and the conditions he was living under in prison. Fears for his life grew after he contracted tuberculosis for which his family said he received inadequate medical treatment.
His parents appealed directly to President Joe Biden after waving to his motorcade while holding a sign about their son while Biden was visiting Fort Worth, Virginia in March.
“First and foremost, we’d like to thank President Biden for his kindness, his consideration, and for making the decision to bring Trevor home,” the couple’s statement said, “the president’s action may have saved Trevor’s life.”
“We’d respectfully ask for some privacy while we address the myriad of health issues brought on by the squalid conditions he was subjected to in his Russian gulag,” the family added.
A senior U.S. official told the Associated Press that Reed’s case had been of the “utmost priority” for the Biden administration and that Yaroshenko, whose sentence has now been commuted, had already served the majority of his sentence.
“It was a difficult decision but one that we thought was worth it,” the official said.
Officials would not reveal where the prisoners were swapped, although the AP cited flight trackers identifying a Russian federal security service (FSB) plane as flying to Ankara, Turkey.
The Reed family statement also referred to the case of Paul Whelan, another former Marine sentenced to a Russian prison. He faced espionage charges and was convicted in 2020 after what he said was a “sham trial.”
“Finally, we stand proudly with the Whelan family and all the other families of wrongfully detained Americans who are still waiting for their own release moment,” the statement added.
Other Americans held by Russia include WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was arrested in February after authorities said a search of her bag revealed a cannabis derivative.
Reporting from Newsweek.
