Leonid Slutsky: “Today the long-awaited exchange of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko for American student Trevor Reed took place”


Leonid Slutsky: “Today, the long-awaited exchange of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced in the United States in 2011 to 20 years in prison, took place for American student Trevor Reid, who was sentenced in Russia to nine years in prison for using violence against police officers.

This was preceded by a lengthy negotiation process. The Russian side has been methodically working for ten years to release Yaroshenko, who, in fact, became the victim of a provocation with the use of illegal extraterritorial law by Washington. Later, in a US prison, Konstantin seriously undermined his health.

The issue of the exchange of prisoners was discussed back in June last year at the Geneva meeting of the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden. I’m sure it’s not our fault that the issue was resolved for so long. Indeed, Biden himself said today that negotiations to return Reed to the United States required “difficult decisions that were not easy for him.” Nevertheless, Konstantin Yaroshenko was able to return to his homeland today, despite the general situation in the world and the deepest crisis in Russian-American relations. Again, not our fault.

Any such event of a humanitarian nature should be welcomed in every possible way. However, it should hardly be overestimated and interpreted as some significant sign of a thaw in the US-Russia bilateral dialogue. The differences are too strong so far, Washington has gone too far in its anti-Russian frenzy and sanctions madness.

But we will not tire of hoping that negotiations on the return of the Russians, who are still illegally held in American prisons, will continue. Both Viktor Bout and the rest of our citizens will also be able to return to Russia. We don’t leave ours!”

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