Russia frees ex-US Marine in prisoner swap: Who is Trevor Reed and why was he in prison since 2020?

Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, which entered Day 64, the Vladimir Putin-led country carried out an unexpected prisoner swap with the United States on Wednesday.

Moscow handed over jailed ex-Marine Trevor Reed, a 30-year-old from Texas who was jailed in Russia in 2020, in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, 53, who had been serving a 20-year US prison sentence since 2011.

The swap, the culmination of longstanding requests by both countries as well as private diplomatic wrangling, took place in Turkey when “the two planes pulled up side by side, essentially, and then they got out,” reported the Associated Press.

Here’s a look at who Reed is, why he was imprisoned and what will happen now that he’s been released.

Who is Trevor Reed?

Born in Forth Worth, Texas, Reed joined the Marine Corps in 2011. During his tenure in the Marines, he was deployed to the Middle East and also served in the presidential guard. He was tasked with the protection of then Vice President Joe Biden at Camp David. Reed was discharged from the Marines in 2016.

In 2017, Reed returned to college at the University of North Texas in Dallas, studying international relations and Russia — the native tongue of his girlfriend, Alina Tsybulnik.

In 2019, he travelled to Moscow for a summer of learning and visiting his girlfriend’s family when he was arrested.

Reed’s imprisonment in Russia

On the night of 15 August 2019, Reed and Tsybulnik attended a party a week before he was expected to return home.

According to Reed’s family, the former Marine was encouraged to drink “a large amount of vodka and apparently became inebriated.”

Reports say that he was travelling home from the party when their car was pulled over and Reed says he got out because he got sick and started running around.

Police were called to the scene and took Reed to a police station where Russian Federation agents later arrived and detained him.

According to his family, when Tsybulnik reached the police station to get him out, she was informed that he had been charged with a “serious crime of intentionally endangering the lives and health of the police officers that brought him to the station”.

The Russian police allege that Reed had grabbed the arm of an officer while in transit to the station, causing the vehicle to swerve.

Reed pleaded not guilty to the crimes, but on 30 July 2020, he was handed down the maximum sentence of nine years in a Russian prison colony.

Reed family lobbies for his release

Since his incarceration, the Reed family has been fighting, claiming their son was innocent.

They began the Free Trevor Reed website where they cited flaws in the Russian investigation, such as lack of video evidence of the police vehicle swerving or even that Trevor was not placed in handcuffs when he was initially picked up by police officers.

The former Marine’s parents — Joey and Paula Reed — also staged a protest outside of the White House last month to raise awareness about his case. The White House protest came at a time when Reed had undertaken a hunger strike in prison, protesting the poor and squalid conditions he was placed in.

Their protests on social media and outside White House finally bore fruit and they received a phone call from President Joe Biden. It was during this call that the US president vowed to bring their son home.

Bringing Trevor home

After much diplomatic wrangling and efforts from the Biden administration, Reed was finally swapped out for Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year US prison sentence since 2011.

Yaroshenko, a pilot by career, was arrested for smuggling cocaine into the US. The US Justice Department had described Yaroshenko as “an experienced international drug trafficker” who conspired to distribute thousands of kilogrammes of cocaine around the world.

In footage shown on Russian state television, Yaroshenko emerged from a US plane onto a sunlit airfield in Turkey, wearing a T-shirt and accompanied by two men in dark suits.

Simultaneously, Reed emerged from a plane opposite with a guard carrying bags.

The two men walked past one other, each on their way to the other’s plane.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the exchange was carried out on Wednesday after “a lengthy negotiations process”.

Reactions

The former Marine’s parents were overjoyed with his return. They announced on Wednesday that Reed had been released after being wrongfully detained for 985 days.

“While we understand the interest in Trevor’s story — and as soon as he’s ready, he’ll tell his own story, 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,” they added.

His mother, Paula, was quoted as telling BBC that she felt “almost as good as the day he was born”.

The Reeds also thanked local and federal elected officials and diplomatic staff for advocating for their son and helping to secure his release. They specifically credited Biden with “making the decision to bring Trevor home,” saying that move may have saved his life.

US president Joe Biden said in a statement the swap required “difficult decisions that I do not take lightly”.

“His safe return is a testament to the priority my administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad,” he added.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken also praised the exchange.

“I am pleased to announce the release of US citizen Trevor Reed, who was wrongfully detained in Russia,” he said in a statement.

“We also remain committed to securing the freedom of all US nationals wrongfully detained abroad,” he added.

What next?

The release of Trevor Reed has put the focus on other Americans currently detained in Russia — including Brittney Griner, a double Olympic gold medallist in women’s basketball, and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine being held on spying charges.

As per an Associated Press report, Biden said Wednesday, “We won’t stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends.”

The prisoner swap also comes at a time when tensions between US and Russia are at an all-time high owing to The Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. The US has been at the center of several sanctions and actions against Russia on the global stage.

With inputs from agencies

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