Monitoring Desk
WASHINGTON: Former US politician Bill Richardson announced on Thursday that Moscow released a US Navy veteran who had been detained in Russia since April. Taylor Dudley was reportedly arrested when he crossed the border from Poland into Kaliningrad in April, 2022.
Richardson said in a statement that it is important that despite the present environment between the US and Russia, Moscow did the right thing by freeing Taylor today.
US-Russia
The development came one month after the US swapped jailed Russian weapons dealer Viktor Bout for basketball player Brittney Griner, whom Washington said had been wrongfully imprisoned for possessing vape cartridges with cannabis oil.
In Taylor Dudley’s case, Washington and Moscow had not publicized his arrest and the US did not say he was wrongfully captured.
Bill Richardson did not mention any swap involved in Dudley’s release. He said a team from the Richardson Center had visited Russia several times in the past on Dudley’s case. The center has helped free detained US nationals from several countries.
Richardson said in a statement that the talks and work to secure Taylor’s safe return were done unnoticeably. He said that as they celebrate Taylor’s safe return, they remain very concerned for Paul Whelan and committed to continue to work on his safe return.
Whelan is an ex-US Marine who was captured in Moscow in 2018 and then convicted of spying.
Washington says Whelan was a private citizen visiting Russia on personal business and has demanded his release.
Washington efforts to negotiate his release as part of the Griner deal failed after Russia demanded in exchange the release of a Russian ex-intelligence official jailed in Germany for assassinating an anti-Russia Chechen person in Berlin in 2019.
