The Russian cyber criminal Aleksandr Vinnik, arrested in Greece in 2017 on suspicion of money laundering, is probably released as part of a prison exchange between Russia and the United States. American media report that ABC News and The New York Times Wednesday.
A day earlier, the American teacher Marc Fogel (63) was released in Moscow. Fogel was arrested in Russia in 2021 for the accusation of drug smuggling and was sentenced to a fourteen -year -old prison sentence in an extra heavy Russian criminal camp. Fogel immediately returned to the US on Tuesday evening, when it comes to Vinnik, it is still unclear when he will arrive in Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov confirmed on Wednesday afternoon the release of “a Russian citizen in the coming days”, but said that his name will only be announced after returning to Russian soil.
The last major exchange between the two countries took place last summer, in which the American journalist Evan Gershkovich and various Russian activists were exchanged against Russian criminals and spies. It is not excluded that even more releases will follow.
Deal with American to
The 44-year-old Vinnik, from the Siberian city of Koergan, was arrested in 2017 at the request of the US in Greece on suspicion of money laundering at least four billion dollars via the BTC-E crypto fair. After three years in a Greek cell, Vinnik was extradited to France in 2020, where he was suspected of fraud. There he was sentenced to five years in prison for developing malware.
Vinnik, who had already been hungry in his Greek cell, had indicated that he wanted to be extradited to Russia. In August 2022, Vinnik was sent back to Greece and then extradited to the United States, Where he was prison for a few decades.
In May last year, it was announced that Vinnik had concluded a deal with the American Public Prosecution Service and had known to “consecration for money laundering”. According to his lawyer, Arkadi Boech, he would therefore get less than ten years in prison. Last month his mother Vera Vinnik said he hoped that her son would be released by Trump.
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