MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday that the idea of a possible new prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States was on the agenda after Moscow and Washington agreed to start work on restoring relations at all levels.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked by reporters about the possibility of a new swap, said U.S.-Russia talks on Tuesday in Riyadh had contributed to a general rapprochement between the U.S. and Russia.
At least 10 Americans remain behind bars in Russia, including two who have been designated as “wrongfully detained” by Washington. Moscow freed an American citizen, Kalob Byers, days before the Russian and American delegations met in the Saudi capital.
Earlier this month, Russia freed Marc Fogel, a U.S. schoolteacher who had been serving a 14-year sentence for drug smuggling after being caught at a Moscow airport with a small amount of marijuana.
He was freed in exchange for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cybercrime boss who had pleaded guilty to money laundering, after being extradited from Greece.
The swap came on the heels of a much larger prisoner exchange last August, involving the United States, Germany, Norway, Slovenia, Russia and Belarus.
Among those freed at that time was Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who had been jailed in Russia on espionage charges that he, the newspaper and the U.S. government denied.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Frances Kerry)
