U.S. Marine Reunited with Family after Russian Prisoner Swap
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A U.S. Marine freed from imprisonment in Russia in a prisoner exchange conducted on April 27 has now been reunited with his family, the Department of State confirmed in an email to National Review.
Trevor Reed, a 30-year-old former Marine infantryman and student at the University of North Texas, was arrested in 2016 while visiting Moscow with his girlfriend, Lina Tsybulnik. The Russian Government alleged that Reed, after being detained by police while publicly intoxicated in Moscow, grabbed the arm of the officer while being driven to a police station — causing the police vehicle to swerve into another lane.
The events were the subject of a dispute, with Reed’s family hiring lawyers and videography experts to contest the Russian government’s version of events. That year, he was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment at a labor camp. U.S. Ambassador to Russia John J. Sullivan had described Reed’s trial as a “theater of the absurd,” alleging that it was a sham designed by Russia to gain diplomatic leverage.
Reed was exchanged on Tuesday for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a 53-year-old Russian pilot and convicted drug trafficker — who, at the time, was serving a 20-year sentence in a Connecticut prison for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine abroad. Yaroshenko was arrested in Liberia in 2010 and extradited to the U.S., where he stood trial. The Russian TASS news agency had characterized Yaroshenko’s extradition as a “kidnapping…in a third country.”
The exchange was conducted in Ankara, Turkey, where both Reed and Yaroshenko were flown by Russian and U.S. aircraft, respectively. According to Reed’s father, Joey Reed, “the American plane pulled up next to the Russian plane and they walked both prisoners across at the same time, like you see in the movies.” Reed was then flown back to the United States, accompanied by Ambassador Roger Carstens, the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs.
Reed was reunited with his family in Texas after undergoing a medical inspection upon his release.
A senior State Department official, speaking to the New York Post, claimed that Reed’s case had been an “utmost priority” for the Biden Administration, given reports that he was coughing up blood. Reed had previously gone on a hunger strike against his detention. His parents claim that he suffered broken ribs while imprisoned and a suspected case of tuberculosis.
Reed’s case had previously been the subject of considerable political attention after a yearslong campaign waged by his parents, who had hired hostage consultant Johnathan Franks, who has been involved in high-profile cases of Americans detained abroad. In 2021, both chambers of Congress passed resolutions calling for his release, while President Joe Biden met Reed’s parents last month. Biden stated that the negotiations to bring Reed home “required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly.”
Reed and Biden have a previous connection. During the Obama Administration, Reed had served as a Marine Presidential Guard and was billeted at Camp David to protect Biden when he was Vice President.
The exchange was previously unannounced to the press and comes amid a moment of high tensions between the U.S. and Russia over the latter’s war in Ukraine. Two other Americans, women’s basketball player Brittney Griner and business executive Paul Whelan, remain detained in Russia. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has said that the U.S. is “committed to securing their freedom.”
