US former marine Trevor Reed released in prisoner swap

US President Joe Biden said negotiations that led to a prisoner swap with Russia for ex-US Marine Trevor Reed in exchange for a convicted drug dealer in the US state of Connecticut involved "difficult decisions."

"His safe return is a testament to the priority my Administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad," Biden said.

Reed had been held in Russia since 2019 when he allegedly endangered the lives of two police officers while intoxicated in Moscow. The US called his trial a "theater of the absurd."

How has the US side reacted?

Biden said he shared the news with Reed's parents, Joey and Paula Reed.

In a statement, the Reed's thanked Biden and said the family had lived through "a nightmare."

The Reed family also thanked other Biden administration officials and Bill Richardson, the former US ambassador to the United Nations. Reed's family said Richardson traveled to Moscow in the hours before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in order to secure Reed's release.

A senior US administration official said Reed was on his way to being reunited with his parents.

What has Russia said so far?

Reed was exchanged for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot serving a 20-year sentence on cocaine smuggling charges following his arrest in Liberia in 2010 and extradition to the US. Yaroshenko's wife told Russian state news agency Tass that he is expected back in Russia soon.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel that the release of the two men was the result of a lengthy negotiation.

Russian state TV channel Rossiya 24 showed Reed on his way to Moscow's Vnukovo Airport, from where it was said he would fly back to the US.

Reed's family said he had gone on a hunger strike to protest conditions in the "Russian gulag," such as solitary confinement and a lack of medical treatment amid tuberculosis fears.

ar/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)