Confessed Russian cybercriminal Aleksandr Vinnik, who was released by the United States in a swap for an American citizen held by Russia for more than three years, has arrived in Moscow.
Vinnik arrived at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport late on February 13, according to Russian media reports. Vinnik's lawyer, Arkady Bukh, confirmed to TASS that Vinnik was on a flight that arrived from Turkey. Bukh said earlier that Vinnik’s flight from the United States to Moscow passed through Istanbul.
Vinnik's return was "yet another victory for Russian diplomacy and all services and agencies associated with his liberation," said Leonid Slutsky, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament.
Vinnik, known as Mr. Bitcoin, was released from a California jail on February 12, according to multiple U.S. outlets citing unnamed White House officials.
Earlier that day, U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed American Marc Fogel back to the United States after 3 ½ years in a Russian prison on marijuana possession charges.
SEE ALSO: U.S. To Release Russian Cybercriminal As Part Of Prisoner Exchange: ReportsTrump hailed Fogel's release as a show of Russia's "good will in terms of the war" in Ukraine as he ramps up diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict.
“We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually. I hope that's the beginning of a relationship where we can end that war," Trump said after welcoming Fogel to the White House on February 11.
Vinnik is one of the heads of the cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e. He was arrested in 2017 in Greece on charges of facilitating extortion, identity theft, and drug trafficking. He was extradited to France, where he was sentenced to five years in prison for creating malware, and from there extradited to the United States in 2022.
He pleaded guilty last year to operating a digital-currency website used by cybercriminals worldwide to launder money and was scheduled to be sentenced by California Judge Susan Illston in June.
Fogel had been sentenced to 14 years in a Russian jail after being detained by Russian police in 2021 for possession of medical marijuana he says was prescribed to him after back surgery.
He is one of several Americans who have been arrested in Russia in recent years and handed long sentences on spurious charges.
The United States has referred to many of them as “hostages,” saying some appeared to have been set up by Russian law enforcement. Washington has accused the Kremlin of targeting Americans in an attempt to secure the release of important Russian citizens jailed in the West on charges of murder, hacking, and arms dealing.
Vinnik had been held by Western authorities for almost eight years. Russian cybercriminals who plead guilty in the United States rarely receive more than a 10-year sentence, an RFE/RL investigation of more than a dozen recent cases showed, implying that Vinnik might have only received a sentence of time served at his June hearing.