Russia agreed on Wednesday to exchange US Marine Trevor Reed for a Russian prisoner held in the United States, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.

“Following a lengthy negotiation process, on April 27, 2022, US citizen Trevor Rowdy Reid, previously convicted in the Russian Federation, was exchanged for Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a US court in 2010,” Zakharova said, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The United States had repeatedly called for Reed’s release, calling his sentencing “obviously ridiculous”. “This conviction, and a nine-year sentence, for an alleged crime that clearly did not take place, is ridiculous. I can’t even say ‘miscarriage of justice’ because clearly ‘justice’ did not was not even considered. It was the scene of the absurd,” US Ambassador John J. Sullivan said in a July 2020 statement. nine years in prison by Moscow after being found guilty of endangering the lives of two Russian police officers while drunk during his visit to Moscow.

Joey and Paula Reed pose for a photo with a portrait of their son, Navy veteran and Russian prisoner Trevor Reed, at their home in Fort Worth, Texas. Credit: AP