After more than two years in Russian custody, Reed returned to the United States. He arrived early Thursday, according to a tweet from Paula Reed’s mother. According to State Department spokesman Ned Price, Reed was “released just when the sentence of a Russian pilot” – Yaroshenko – was commuted. “It was a decision the president made,” Price told CNN. President Joe Biden said he raised the issue with the Russians “three months ago”. Behind the scenes, officials inside and outside the US government have been working for years to secure Reed’s release, including “months and months of hard work and diligence across the US government,” a government official told CNN. in the background. of the growing tension between Washington and Moscow, which was dramatically exacerbated by Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine. The US government’s efforts were largely led by US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan – whose staff in Moscow has collapsed due to Russian government restrictions – and Carstens’s team. The case has also been brought to the forefront, including by Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and “other channels” of the US government, a well-known source said. But for months – since Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva last June – the US government has been questioning whether to allow an exchange of prisoners to free Americans held in Russia, he told CNN. another known source. The release of a detainee from US custody is ultimately a decision of the President, but it also requires approval from the Department of Justice and has rarely happened. And even in this case, when Biden decided to approve the exchange, Reed’s release was not instantaneous.
Critical pre-war meeting
In February, in the days immediately before the Russian war in Ukraine, members of the Richardson Center – which he privately supports on behalf of hostage families and detainees – were invited to Moscow to meet with the Russian leadership, a second source said. The National Security Council was informed that the trip was taking place and there were talks between the Richardson Center and the NSC both before and after. After the visit, the Richardson Center had a clear sense of what the Russians were willing to do and how they were willing to do it. This was presented to the White House in the hope that it would act on the advice – and quickly, the source said. It was the culmination of the events surrounding Reed’s case – the deterioration of his health, the activism of his family that led to a meeting with Biden and the situation in Ukraine – that led Biden to authorize the exchange for Yaroshenko. according to the second source. Indeed, these concerns about Reed’s health have given rise to urgent efforts by the Biden government to take him home from Russia, according to several sources, including Price. Reed’s family said he had Covid-19, was exposed to tuberculosis and told them in March that he was “bleeding several times a day, having a fever and still having pain in his lungs”. These growing concerns about Reed’s health have led management to have “a more focused discussion about what would be necessary for this to happen in the near future,” according to the first known source. The source explained that there were warnings to Moscow that it would be bad for both the United States and Russia if his health deteriorated while he was still in custody. “If this situation worsens, it’s obviously very, very bad for us because we want to keep the Americans healthy and safe. But it would also be very bad for them,” the source said, referring to the Russians.
Personal requests
The second source noted that the exchange also took place after the Reeds met directly with Biden – the only prisoner family who did. “We believe this meeting with the President was what made it happen,” Joey Reid said Wednesday, calling his wife Paula a “turning point.” This meeting came after a huge public pressure and calls from the family. When Biden was visiting Texas last month for a veterans health event, Reed’s parents sought a meeting through the White House. When they refused, the Reeds stood outside Biden’s talk area, hoping to get his attention as he arrived. It worked, to some extent. as he arrived in his limousine, the couple caught Biden’s eye with his sign and he pointed in their direction. But the motorcade did not stop. Later, in a telephone interview, Biden told the Reeds that he had prayed the rosary for their son in Air Force One as he flew south. He told them that he “thinks of Trevor every day”. Biden told the couple that someone from the White House would call them back. Days and weeks passed without a word and the Reeds were disappointed that their immediate impact seemed to fade from memory. So they came to Biden’s front yard, raised their sign in Lafayette Park across from the White House, and said they would stay until he met with them. “We wanted to be here to draw attention to Trevor’s case and let them know we did not forget. We are waiting for the phone call. We want the meeting the President promised us,” Paula Reed said on the morning of March 30. It was not just the President’s attention that the Reeds were looking for. They came to Washington with a specific request: for Biden to consider an exchange of prisoners that could lead to the release of their son. By noon, Biden had instructed his team to arrange a meeting and met with Paula and Joey Reid in the Oval Office later that day. “He listened carefully to everything we had to say until the debate was over. We could not ask for more,” said Joey Reed.
“Very difficult decision”
A senior government official told reporters Wednesday that negotiations with the Russians “led the president to make a very tough decision with the decision to commute the sentence of Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian smuggler convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine.” According to the first source, the Russian government had long expressed interest in taking Yaroshenko back from the United States. The United States does not see any equivalence between the two cases, as it considers Reed an unjust detainee and Yaroshenko has been convicted in the US judiciary, but that was “a consistent request from Russia,” they said. to discuss and, indeed, even a step further, to negotiate for several months, that they have something they want, they have people who would like their home “. The first source would not say whether Yaroshenko is explicitly linked to the Kremlin. Although the second source said that he had spoken about close ties with Putin, questions remain about the real closeness of their relationship. Although the Justice Ministry did not “actively participate in these negotiations with the Russians,” it had to authorize Yaroshenko’s release, the first source said. “This is a conversation we had with the leadership of the Ministry of Justice a while ago,” the source told CNN, but noted that in the end “it is the President’s call to do so.” Biden is regularly briefed on hostage-taking and detainee cases, the source said, and took the advice of his cabinet to make the decision to exchange detainees that released Reed from Russian detention. “This is a tough call for a president,” said a senior administration official. “You are not letting these Americans go free,” former governor Bill Richardson, head of the eponymous center, told CNN on Wednesday. “There is always a price, but for that, it was worth it.” Officials said it was a negotiation on “a separate issue on which we could reach an agreement with the Russians.” “It represents no change – zero – in our approach to the horrific violence in Ukraine,” said a senior government official. A second senior official told CNN that they do not necessarily see this success as a dynamic in the case of Paul Whelan or Brittney Griner, other Americans being held in Russia, although the US government will continue to push for their release and the channel. for possible exchanges will remain open. Whelan, meanwhile, wonders why he was left behind in the prisoner exchange that released Reed. “Why was I left behind?” “People know this charge was fabricated. Why not do more to secure my release?” CNN’s Chris Boyette and Chandelis Duster contributed to this report.
