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MOSCOW: Moscow said Wednesday it has exchanged former US marine Trevor Reed, jailed in Russia for assaulting police, for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted of drug smuggling in the United States.
The prisoner swap comes at a time of soaring tensions between Moscow and Washington over Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
“As a result of a lengthy negotiations process, on April 27, 2022, US citizen Trevor Reed, previously convicted in the Russian Federation, was exchanged for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison by an American court,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.
Images released by Russian state TV showed Reed — dressed all in black and carrying a large bag — escorted onto a plane at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport by men in military uniform.
Reed, a student and former marine from Texas, was in July 2020 sentenced to nine years in prison by a Russian court after allegedly attacking police officers while drunk.
While being driven to a police station, he allegedly grabbed the arm of a police officer, causing the car they were in to swerve, and elbowed another officer in the abdomen.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying he remembers nothing of the incident.
Konstantin Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in 2010 for drug trafficking. He was then transferred to the United States, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2011.