‘DIFFICULT DECISIONS’

Jailed U.S. Marine Trevor Reed Freed in Dramatic Prisoner Swap With Russia

The American held in a Russian jail since 2019 has been swapped for a convicted Russian drug trafficker.

A U.S. Marine veteran who has been held in a Russian jail for three years on what he said were trumped-up charges of assaulting police has been freed after a dramatic Cold War-style prisoner swap. Trevor Reed, 30, was swapped for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who has been in U.S. federal prison for more than a decade after being convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine. Details of the swap were not made public but it appears likely that the two men were exchanged in the Turkish capital, Ankara. As USA Today noted, the swap would have been a “notable diplomatic maneuver” at any time but “was all the more extraordinary because it was done as Russia’s war with Ukraine has driven relations with the U.S. to their lowest point in decades.” Reed’s parents have actively lobbied for the U.S. government to secure his release and met in March with President Biden, who said in a statement that the “negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly”