Tonight, Marine veteran T.R is on an airplane on his way back to the United States after nearly three-year ordeal in a Russian jail. His family tell us that R will head straight to a Defense Department hospital. The prisoner swap was unexpected especially since tension between the US and Russia is at the highest point since the Cold War. In exchange for Reed, the US government freed a Russian pilot, convicted a drug smuggling charges. President B alluded to his release a difficult decision. But tonight, there are at least two other Americans are in Russian jail. In a statement in celebrating release of R, President B said “We won’t stop until P.W and others join T in the loving arms of family and friends.”

T’s parents credit their personal meeting with President B last month, right here in Washington for his release, calling in a quote “tipping point” The White House says this was a deal months in the making and that it was the President himself who broke the good news to R’s family. T’s parents described the dramatic moment of something you see in the movies. Video released by Russian State Media captured their thirty-year-old son arriving at Turkey from Moscow. As he crossed a tarmac board a flight home to America. R walks right pass K.Y, who the US agreed to return in exchange for R. The Russian pilot was serving a twenty-year prison sentence in Connecticut, convicted conspiracy and smuggling cocaine to the US. In a statement President B said “The negotiation that allowed us to bring T home require difficult decisions that I do not take lightly”. R’s family say he was coughing up blood multiple times a day, running a fever and that his lung hurt. The Marine veteran was serving a nine-year prison sentence, accused of assaulting two policy officers after a night of heavy drinking in 2019. At least two well-known Americans remain in Russian custody. WNBA star B.G who was arrested in February and P.W, also a Marine veteran accused of espionage who has been detained since 2018, longer than R. W’s family found out about R’s release on TV, and before today, they have not heard from the B administration in three months. But the White House once again reiterated its commitment to bring both W and G home.

:::tip tarmac

• : used for a bituminous binder for roads. 沥青路

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