French NGO worker Laurent Vinatier was released by Russia on Thursday following a prisoner swap with France. Vinatier was arrested by the Russian secret service in a restaurant in Moscow in June 2024 because he had not registered as a ‘foreign agent’.
The 49-year-old Frenchman at the time worked as an advisor with a focus on Russia and Ukraine for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss organization that mediates in armed conflicts. Previously, he worked as a researcher at the university in Uppsala, Sweden and the Thomas More Institute in Paris.
Four months after his arrest, a judge in Moscow sentenced Vinatier to three years in prison for collecting Russian military information without registering as a ‘foreign agent’. This is mandatory for everyone who works in Russia for a foreign NGO or receives support from abroad, according to a law that will be tightened in 2022. With the law, the Kremlin is trying to thwart the work of journalists, activists and human rights organizations.
In court, Vinatier said he was not aware of this rule. He went on to say he loved Russia, apologized for breaking the law and recited a poem by Alexander Pushkin.
While he was serving his sentence, Russia conducted an additional investigation into Vinatier for espionage. It was expected that he would have to appear in court again in the coming months.
In one message on X French President Emmanuel Macron thanks the diplomats who worked on the release. “Our compatriot is free and back in France,” he writes. His colleagues are “overjoyed” and “relieved,” his employer said in an email declaration.
Hacker network
Vinatier was traded for 26-year-old Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, who was arrested by French authorities at a Paris airport last summer at the request of the United States. Shortly before, he had proposed to his girlfriend in the French capital, according to the French newspaper Le Monde.
The US suspects Kasatkin, who spent some time studying and playing basketball in Pennsylvania, of involvement in ransomware attacks. He is said to be part of a hacker network that has also attacked US federal institutions.
The basketball player, who played for a Moscow team until his arrest, denies this. The basketball player would know nothing about computers, his lawyer told the AFP news agency. He allegedly bought a second-hand laptop that had not yet been cleaned.
The two prisoners have now arrived in their country of origin. On a video from Russian state media, that The Moscow Times Thursday has publishedshows Laurent Vinatier being driven to a plane, where basketball player Kasatkin is just getting off.
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