US EditionRussia frees French political scholar in a prisoner swap for a basketball player
Laurent Vinatier was pardoned by President Putin and exchanged for Daniil Kasatkin, detained in France at the U.S. request, marking a diplomatic prisoner swap.
- On Jan 8, Russia is freeing Laurent Vinatier in exchange for France's release of a jailed Russian, and RIA reported Vinatier was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin.
- Laurent Vinatier was arrested in Moscow in June 2024 and convicted in October 2024 of breaching foreign agent rules, while espionage investigators opened fresh probes as he faced a likely further trial in coming months.
- Russian authorities accused him of failing to register as a `foreign agent` while collecting military information, and Russian court records show espionage charges carry 10–20 years.
- Daniil Kasatkin was jailed in France at the U.S. request; his lawyer Frederic Belot said he flew back to Moscow on Thursday after release.
- The swap followed a Kremlin proposal in late December after Putin said he'd look into Vinatier's case as he faced fresh espionage investigations, highlighting diplomatic implications for Russia, France and the U.S.
94 Articles
94 Articles
France releases the basketball player Kasatkin and denies extradition to the US. A possible signal of relaxation with the tsar
The secret was well kept, until the last minute. French researcher Laurent Vinatier, detained in Russia since June 2024, was already on French soil when the announcement of his release fell, this Thursday in the middle of the afternoon. He came out of the Russian jail earlier in the morning, according to his lawyer, Mr. Frédéric Bélot. The scenario of an exchange of prisoners was privileged. With in line the date of January 7, Orthodox Christmas…
Prisoner exchange: Vinatier served a three-year prison sentence for collecting Russian military information without registering as a…
In June 2024, the French researcher Laurent Vinatier was released on Thursday 8 January by Moscow. According to the Russian security service, he was "exchanged" against Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin. For months, his parents, convinced of his innocence, were afraid that their son would be forgotten and that he would spend very long years in a Russian prison. Tonight, they express their joy, relief and surprise. They confided themselve…
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