Russia and the United States carried out a prisoner exchange on Wednesday, trading a Marine veteran jailed in Moscow for a Russian pilot serving a long prison sentence in America, said TASS news agency. Moscow and Washington had agreed to release American Trevor Reid, who was sentenced last year to nine years in prison by a Russian court for assaulting Russian security forces in exchange for pilot Viktor Yaroshenko, it added. In 2011, a US court sentenced Yaroshenko to 20 years in prison for drug smuggling. US President Joe Biden on Wednesday welcomed back the return of former Marine Trevor Reid, who was detained in Russia, which Biden said negotiations to achieve required "difficult decisions." In a statement released by the White House, Biden expressed his gratitude "for the tireless work and dedication of Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, United States Ambassador to the Russian Federation John Sullivan, and many others in our government to ensure Trevor's safe return home." "The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly," Biden said. Biden stressed that the safety of Trevor's return to America is a testament to his administration's priority on repatriating Americans held hostage and unjustly held abroad, emphasizing that will not stop until Paul Whelan and others bring them back home to their family and friends. Paul Whelan is a former US Marine who was sentenced by a Russian court in June 2020 to 16 years in prison with hard labor for espionage. — Agencies
