Mr. Richardson said on CNN on Wednesday that he believes Mr. Biden is moved by the humanitarian need to secure Mr. Reed’s release. Family members said he was suffering from active tuberculosis while in custody in Russia.
But Mr. Biden’s decision to approve the prisoner swap also came after weeks of public pressure from Mr. Reed’s parents, who initially criticized the president for refusing to meet with them about his son’s case. their son.
Mr. Biden called them in early March after the pair stood by the roadside in Texas and waved as the presidential motorcade drove on its way to a veterans event. Three weeks later, in late March, Mr. Biden invited the pair into the White House for a brief chat after they protested outside the building.
That public pressure has added momentum as the war in Ukraine intensifies, raising fears that deteriorating relations between the United States and Russia will be less likely to achieve a breakthrough. In fact, US officials and Mr. Richardson say the fighting in Ukraine does not appear to have deterred Russia’s willingness to discuss a swap.
Mr. Reed was initially detained by Russian authorities in August 2019. His family has increasingly expressed concern about his health during his detention, and footage was broadcast on Wednesday on the television channel. The Russian state showed Mr. Reed looking thin. escorted to a Russian plane at Vnukovo airport, Moscow. Mr. Reed’s father, Joey Reed, told CNN his son was flown to Turkey, where the exchange took place.
A native of Texas, Mr. Reed traveled to Russia in May 2019 to visit his Russian girlfriend, whom he met on a dating website and to take language lessons. A week before he was due to return to the United States, he went to a party in a park outside Moscow, where he drank a large amount of vodka.
Mr. Reed then became agitated, prompting his girlfriend and friends to call the police. Officers who arrived at the scene decided to take him to the police station, where he was interviewed by Russian security agents. Soon after, he was charged with assault and endangering the lives of the two policemen who drove him there.
