President Vladimir Putin included pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who had previously returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States, to the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation. This is stated in the decree posted on the official Internet portal of legal information.
Putin's decree calls Yaroshenko a "human rights activist and public figure."
On April 27, American Trevor Reid was exchanged for Yaroshenko. The wife of the latter said in a conversation with The Insider that she learned about her husband's upcoming arrival an hour and a half before the correspondent called.
Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko was detained in Liberia in 2010 at the request of Washington. In September 2011, Yaroshenko was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States. According to the prosecutor's office, Yaroshenko accepted the offer of American agents to transport cocaine from South America to Africa, and from there to the United States. In conclusion, Yaroshenko wrote a letter to US President Donald Trump, in which he asked to be returned to Russia. In the letter, Yaroshenko claimed that he was serving a sentence under an illegal and unfair sentence and expressed hope for "humanity and understanding of the difficult situation." In a letter to Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, the pilot reported that he had been tortured by American intelligence services.