By Steve Holland, Jeff Mason and Dmitry Antonov
WASHINGTON/MOSCOW (Reuters) -The United States is freeing a Russian cybercrime boss from prison in return for Moscow’s release of American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, U.S. administration officials said on Wednesday.
The Kremlin said the deal – the first it has struck with the new administration of President Donald Trump – could help build trust between the two countries.
But it played down Trump’s suggestion that the agreement could make a significant contribution towards ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Trump administration officials confirmed to Reuters that Alexander Vinnik, a cryptohacker, was being released.
Vinnik has to forfeit more than $100 million to the U.S. government and is currently in northern California awaiting transportation back to Russia, one official said.
Another detained American has been released from Belarus, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday without releasing the individual’s name.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 and subsequently extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty in May 2024 to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He operated a cryptocurrency exchange, BTC-e, through which he was suspected of funnelling $4 billion in proceeds from ransomware attacks, identity theft, drug rings and other criminal activity.
Earlier, the Kremlin said a Russian was being freed but that it would not identify him until he was back in the country.
Fogel, 63, was serving a 14-year sentence for drug smuggling after being caught at a Moscow airport with a small amount of marijuana. He was flown on Tuesday to Washington, where he celebrated his release with Trump at the White House.
Trump said the deal could play an important role in ending the three-year-old war in Ukraine.
Asked about that comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the agreement to release prisoners was the result of meticulous negotiations.
“Of course, such agreements are hardly capable of becoming a breakthrough moment but at the same time, bit by bit, these are steps to build mutual trust, which is now at its lowest point,” he added.
A source close to the negotiations told Reuters that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russia’s sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev were involved in arranging the exchange.
POSSIBLE MEETING
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both said they are keen to meet to discuss Trump’s ideas for bringing a swift conclusion to the war, but no date for any summit has been announced.
U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz said Fogel was freed in a negotiated exchange “that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine”.
Trump called the terms of Fogel’s release “very fair”.
“We were treated very nicely by Russia. Actually, I hope that’s the beginning of a relationship where we can end that (Ukraine) war and millions of people can stop being killed,” Trump said on Tuesday.
Fogel was released into the custody of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who made an unannounced stop in Moscow on Tuesday to pick him up.
Fox News reported that Witkoff, a real estate developer and longtime friend of Trump, had a three-and-a-half hour meeting with Putin. Peskov declined to comment on the Fox News report.
Asked what the United States gave up in exchange for Fogel, Trump told reporters earlier, “Not much.”
Russia’s rouble rose against the dollar on Wednesday on news of the Fogel deal and optimism about prospects for an easing of the Ukraine crisis.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Steve Holland and Nandita Bose in Washington and Dmitry Antonov in Moscow; writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Jon Boyle and Lisa Shumaker)
